Thursday featured a whopping eight finales across the broadcast networks. American Idol’s 12th season finale plummeted from last year, which isn’t a surprise considering how bad this season has been for the Fox show. Over at NBC, The Office jumped for its series finale.
Idol did power Fox to an overall win on the night, averaging 13.6 million viewers and a 3.4 18-49 rating, according to early numbers, notes THR. However, this was a huge 42 percent drop from last season in the demo, when the show garnered a 6.4. Just two years ago, the Idol finale had a 9.2. These early numbers do not include the last seven minutes of Idol’s finale, which stretched past Fox’s usual two-hour primetime.
According to HitFix, CBS came in second with 10.35 million viewers and a 2.6 18-49 rating. The Big Bang Theory season finale had 14.78 million viewers and a 4.4 18-49 rating, easily beating Idol. After a Big Bang rerun, Elementary’s finale started with 9.11 million viewers, while the second hour dipped to 8.75 million. Overall, the modern Sherlock Holmes show had a 2.0 18-49 rating and will be back in the fall.
ABC had 7.19 million viewers and a 2.4 18-49 rating. Wipeout kicked things off with 3.8 million viewers and a 1.0 18-49 rating, while Grey’s Anatomy had 8.63 million and a 3.0 18-49 rating. Scandal finished with 9.13 million viewers and a 3.2 18-49 rating. EW notes that Scandal was up a huge 39 percent from last year’s season finale.
NBC is a bit more confusing since The Office finale took up the first 15 minutes of the 10 p.m. hour. However, early numbers show that the network’s overall numbers were 4.44 million viewers and a 2.2 18-49 rating.
The Office retrospective had 4.37 million viewers and a 2.0 18-49 rating, while the first full 60 minutes of the finale had 5.41 million and a 2.9. That’s it’s best best rating in 16 months. NBC’s 10 p.m. slot saw 3.53 million viewers tune in for the last part of The Office and 45 minutes of Hannibal. That hour also drew a 1.7 18-49 rating.
The Vampire Diaries finale at The CW had 2.2 million viewers and a 1.0 18-49 rating. Beauty and the Beast finished its first season with 1.3 million viewers and a 0.5 18-49 rating.
image: NBC