TV Ratings: ‘Empire’ Finale Fizzles From 2016, CBS Wins Night

The NBA Playoffs had a night off on Wednesday but there was a lot of action on the television court with finales for Empire (2.4/9), Arrow (0.6/2), Survivor (1.9/8), Shots Fired (0.9/4), The 100 (0.3/1) and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1.3/5) on the last official day of this year’s season.

With explosions, cliffhangers and year-to-year declines, the big player was still the Fox hip hop drama, but over on ABC they were making some retro moves of their own with a Dirty Dancing (1.3/5) musical remake. Taking up all of the Disney-owned net’s primetime, the Abigail Breslin and Colt Prattes-starring version of the 1980s fav did better than many expected and matched SVU for the third highest rated show of the night among adults 18-49 after Empire and Survivor’s finales. Watched by 6.6 million, Dirty Dancing also delivered ABC its most watched Wednesday since the CMA Awards on November 12 last year.

Up 18% from last week and with its best result in almost two months, the 9 PM end of Empire’s third season saw the still hefty series down 37% in the key demo from its Season 2 finale of May 18 last year. In a season that has seen Empire hit series lows on a number of weeks, last night’s finale was unsurprisingly a season ender low for the renewed show, which takes over the 8 PM slot next season. In the 8 PM slot last night, the end of Shots Fired was up a tenth from last week to help give a somewhat chastised Fox score a close second place demo spot for the night with a 1.6/7 rating – even though that was up a tenth from last week’s win.

In a rare Wednesday first place in both the demo and viewers with a 1.7/7 rating and 7.8 million tuning in, CBS saw a winner proclaimed by a 7-3-0 vote last night as Survivor wrapped up its 34th season -though not until 10:15 PM ET. Up 12% from its May 17 show, the veteran reality series took a 19% hit from its comparable Season 32 ender of May 18 last year. The follow-up Reunion (1.4/5) show was down a tenth from the meet-up after the Season 32 ender. With Survivor ratings looking at just the 8 – 10 PM time period in fast affiliates currently, we could see an adjust in later number to take that winner announcement into account.

Ending its fifth season on what could be a fatal cliffhanger before moving to Thursdays next season, last night’s Arrow rose a tenth from last week but missed its Season 4 result by 17%. Renewed lead-out The 100 was even with last week but down two-tenths from its Season 3 ender of May 19, 2016 – a Thursday.

Starting the night with a Law & Order: SVU encore (0.7/3), NBC had a two-hour end to the show’s 18th season dominating its line-up. The immigration-fueled “Sanctuary” episode was up a tenth from last week’s one-hour airing, but fell 19% among the 18-49s from last year’s SVU one-hour Season 17 finale of May 25, 2016.

And that folks, is it for the 2016-2017 season — with all the new shows coming this summer on broadcast, cable and streaming.