The 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California on Sunday, September 16, 2007 and were televised live on FOX and CTV at 8:00 p.m. EDT (00:00 UTC) for the first time high definition (on tape delay three hours later on the West Coast of the United States at 8:00 p.m. PDT/3:00 UTC). It was also broadcast live to Australia on the Bio. channel. The ceremonies were hosted by Ryan Seacrest.
The ceremonies were supposed to be produced by Nigel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick, executive producers of American Idol, but because of their heavy work load with Idol, Ken Ehrlich, last year's producer, resumed the producer's role for the fourth time. Ratings plunged further down to a near an all-time low as an estimate 12.87 million, 19% lower than last year people making it the second smallest television audience behind the 1990 telecast.
Nominations were announced Thursday, July 19 at 5:40 a.m. PDT (12:40 UTC) by nominees Jon Cryer and Kyra Sedgwick.
Meanwhile, the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, hosted by comedian-actor Carlos Mencia, were presented eight days earlier on September 8.
