As you read this, one of TV’s biggest weeks of the year is wrapping up, starting with the 67th Annual Primetime Emmys and finishing with week one of the 2015-2016 broadcast season. Brief covered it all, but if you missed something, here’s a recap:
HBO came into this year’s Emmy awards with the most nominations of any network at 126, and then went on to win more than a third of those, leaving Primetime Emmy Awards with a total of 43 trophies, counting the wins at the previous week’s Creative Arts Awards. It was a great night for HBO, but less great for the broadcast networks, and for show host Fox in particular, which was shut out of any primetime awards and then saw the broadcast score the lowest ratings in Emmy history.

Fox quickly got over that hangover, though, when all the marketing for supernova scripted series Empire returned for season 2 and attracted 16.7 million viewers and a 6.7 in adults 18-49, proving that hits still happen and broadcast can still pull broad audiences. If only it was more the norm than the exception, something that even Fox feels with another of its priorities, Scream Queens, opening soft once the Tuesday overnights came out. Stay tuned, however, to see whether overnights even matter when it comes to a young-skewing show like Ryan Murphy’s latest black dramedy.

All of the broadcast networks got a chance to see how well their marketing plans played out as shows started to premiere, with all of them experiencing both hits and misses.
ABC spent a lot of its marketing capital on The Muppets and its Thursday night TGIT line-up. The Muppets paid off and TGIT, airing as this is being written, is a safe bet for success.
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CBS has the advantage of big platforms—such as Thursday Night Football and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert—to play off of, and it’s taking its time to launch its new shows, with only comedy Life in Pieces and drama Limitless debuting during premiere week. The network is saving its big bet, Supergirl, for late October when it will have the stage all to itself.

NBC, which also has a huge football night with Sunday Night Football (hence the Emmys’ poor performance), is banking on two things this fall: new drama Blindspot and live events, such as Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris, live-to-tape comedy Undateable and upcoming musical The Wiz. Live is one way to get people to watch not via their DVR but there’s also the risk that Undateable becomes unwatchable. Blindspot was an early success for NBC, coming strong out of the gate on Monday at 10 p.m. with a 10.6 million viewers and a 3.1 among adults 18-49.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here’s one of our favorite Hot Spots from the week to take you through until Monday. Enjoy the weekend!
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