‘This Is Us’ Season Finale Breaks Its Own TV Ratings Records by Double Digits

NBC drama jumps 13 percent from penultimate episode among adults 18-49, and rises even more in total viewers

This Is Us
NBC

Tuesday’s “This Is Us” season finale just broke its own TV Ratings records by double digits.

The freshman drama scored a 3.4 rating/11 share in the key 18-49 demographic and landed 12.8 million total viewers, according to preliminary numbers. Last week, the Season 1 penultimate episode put up a 3.0 rating in the main demo and had 11.2 million total viewers. Those were the previous high-water marks for the freshman series.

Doing a little math, that means “This Is Us” shattered its previous demo record by 13 percent and topped total viewers by 15 percent. Those numbers also make the episode NBC’s top-rated in-season Tuesday scripted show in almost eight years, since “Law & Order: SVU” on May 5, 2009, which posted a 3.7 demo rating. It’s also the most-watched one in nearly nine years, since an April 15, 2008 “SVU,” which hauled in 13.3 million overall audience members.

Tuesday’s season-ender was the highest-rated drama on any broadcast network in five months, since the October 12 “Empire,” which earned a 3.5 rating. Pretty good company to be in.

All told, when combined with lead-in “The Voice” and the decent two-episode debut of new sitcom “Trial & Error” (which averaged out to a 1.2 rating and 5.3 million total viewers), NBC won another Tuesday primetime in the main demo. CBS topped the night among total viewers, thanks to eyeball-giant “NCIS.”

Nielsen’s numbers have been delayed for days due to a Florida power outage at the TV ratings currency company’s data collection headquarters. Clearly, they’re now catching up.

Comments