“This Is Us” did a little more damage on Sunday than just offing Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) during the special post-Super Bowl episode of the hit NBC drama. Well, if you count the fact the patriarch’s death affected not just the TV fam, but 27 million total viewers, according to fast official Nielsen numbers.
From 10:45 – 11:49 p.m., the installment was up 53 percent from the “24: Legacy” premiere on Fox, which posted 17.6 million viewers when it aired in the coveted time slot after the game last year.
The Dan Fogelman-created series also took a 9.3 rating in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and was the most-watched post-Super Bowl telecast since NBC’s “The Voice” in 2012, which scored 37.6 million viewers.
The broadcast was also NBC’s most-watched scripted show in over 13 years when an episode of “ER” aired after the “Friends” finale in 2004 (28.4 million). It also ranked as the most-watched drama on any network in 10 years, since the 2008 post-Super Bowl episode of Fox’s “House” (29.1 million).
As we reported earlier, “This Is Us” scored a 16.2 rating in the 56 metered markets, making it the highest-rated post-Super Bowl TV show in six years, per early Nielsen numbers. That’s up 59 percent from the”24: Legacy” premiere.
Following the dramatic episode, the cast appeared on a post-Super Bowl edition of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” from 12:24-1:35 a.m. ET, which grabbed 8.4 million total viewers and a 2.61 rating in adults 18-49. Sunday’s show was the fourth highest-rated telecast for the late-night program.
Oh, and if you’re wondering about NBC’s Super Bowl LII, it was watched by 103.4 million total viewers.
That’s down 7 percent from 2017’s big game, though the number is good enough to make Super Bowl LII the No. 10 most-watched TV show in U.S. history. Nielsen viewership peaked at 112.3 million viewers from 10-10:15 p.m. ET, which was during the fourth quarter.
With streaming and additional platforms counted, the Philadelphia Eagles’ first Vince Lombardi Trophy win hauled in 106 million overall audience members. Not surprisingly, it was the most-streamed Super Bowl ever.