“Under the Dome” has flown mostly under the radar this summer, when the average viewership has been less than half what it was two years ago. The show will go out with a bit of a whimper on its series finale Thursday, something that didn’t appear to be the CBS drama’s trajectory in 2013.
This summer, “Under the Dome” has averaged just a 1.6 rating/6 share in the key 18-49 demographic and 7.2 million total viewers, per Nielsen’s “most current” ratings, which include Live+7 Day viewing where available. The last two weeks worth of data consists of just Live+Same Day stats.
That means the show is down 42.9 percent in the main demo and 36.3 percent among total viewers versus last year. At the time, “Dome” brought in a 2.8/9 with 11.3 million viewers, which is all L+7 data. Of course, those numbers were quite a bit lower than the premiere year themselves.
Over its debut summer, the Dean Norris–Rachelle Lefevre vehicle brought in a big 3.9/11 and 15.1 million viewers. From 2013 to 2014, the CBS drama dropped 28.2 percent in the main demo and 25.2 percent in overall audience.
At the risk of being harsh, all told, the show has fallen 59 percent in the demo and 52.3 percent in total viewers from its killer start two summers ago. Ah, to be 2013 again.
Oh, and good luck tonight, “Under the Dome” — you’ll be airing against the first NFL game of the season over on NBC.
“Under the Dome” concludes Thursday at 10 p.m. on CBS.