‘This Is Us’ Logs First No. 1 Total Viewers Finish For NBC Scripted Series In 13 Years, Becomes Season’s Top Drama In Demo

The March 14 finale of NBC’s This Is Us posted a new Live+7 viewership record for the hot freshman drama. The closer grew 4.940 million viewers from Live+Same Day to L+7, hitting a series-high 17.776 million viewers in L7 and edging NCIS (17.713 million) after trailing the CBS stalwart by 1.321 million viewers in L+SD.

This was the first time in almost 13 years that an NBC in-season scripted series has topped all broadcast and cable shows for the No. 1 spot in total viewers, since May 2004, when the Frasier series finale led its week.

With the This Is Us finale factored in, the NBC series ranks as the season’s No. 1 broadcast drama in L+7 adults 18-49 with a 4.82 rating, tied with Fox’s Empire. (According to NBC, additional VOD viewing for the January 10 This Is Us, not integrated into the official Nielsen database, lifts Us to the outright No. 1 position with a 4.84 rating).

Since This Is Us is done for the season, it will be up to Empire to determine who will get season-end top broadcast drama demo honors as the Fox series just kicked off its spring run.