Premiere week did not get off to a good start for the Emmy Awards, which saw a drop in ratings for Sunday’s telecast on CTV, while the annual TV spectacle had the fewest eyeballs ever in the U.S.

CTV grabbed 1.5 million viewers — down from last year’s 1.6 million — for television’s so-called biggest night, which featured major wins for AMC drama Mad Men and the NBC comedy 30 Rock, both airing domestically on A. The show peaked at 1.7 million viewers at 9-9:30 p.m., and was still the most-watched program of the night. (All numbers 2+.)

On ABC, the Emmys managed 12.2 million, just behind Fox’s historic-low 1990 ceremony with 12.3 million viewers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show was generally panned by critics as the worst ever, and featured a capricious opening monologue by emcees Ryan Seacrest, Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, Jeff Probst and Tom Bergeron — all reality-show hosts.

The Emmys aired in part opposite Sunday’s marquee NFL game between the Dallas Stars and Green Bay Packers, which scored just under 400,000 viewers on TSN.

The week also saw the return of Heroes, with a two-hour premiere on Global, while reality competition Dancing with the Stars and the seventh season of CSI: Miami debuted on CTV. Numbers were not available at press time.