TV Ratings: ‘Person Of Interest’ Hits Low In Series Finale

After five seasons on CBS, Person Of Interest (1.0/3) came to an end last night with the demise of one of its main characters. The finale of the abbreviated 13-episode season dipped 9% among adults 18-49 compared with the Season 4 ender of May 5 last year – which had an original NCIS as a lead-in.

Even with last week’s episoe, last night’s result makes the end of Person Of Interest the lowest-rated finale for the Jonah Nolan-created show – though potential adjustments in later numbers could see that change. The all-time high for a PoI finale was the Season 1 ender with its 2.5/7 at 9 PM on a busy May 17, 2012.

While Person Of Interest was the only original on CBS last night, its Big 4 rivals had fuller slates. The top-rated and, with 11.48 million tuning in, the most-watched show of the night was America’s Got Talent (2.3/9). However, while NBC won Tuesday with a 1.9/7 and 9.10 million viewers, AGT took an 11% demo hit to match a June 7 season low for the Simon Cowell co-judged competition series. Although winning the 10 PM slot over PoI and ABC’s To Tell The Truth (1.0/4), which was down two-tenths, AGT lead-out Maya & Marty (1.1/4) also declined from its June 14 show — 15% among the 18-49s.

The CW’s only original Tuesday was the now-shuttered Containment (0.3/1), which was even with last week. Fox’s Hotel Hell (0.8/3) and Coupled (0.5/2) were both down a tenth from their final numbers of June 14. With The Middle (0.8/3) and Black-ish (0.7/3) encores starting off ABC’s night, Uncle Buck (1.0/4) took the biggest fall of Tuesday’s primetime with a 33% drop from its debut last week, when the comedy was preceded by the premiere of To Tell The Truth.