CBS is out with some final ratings numbers for The Big Bang Theory series finale, and the numbers are serious. The Jim Parsons-fronted comedy ended its 12-season run with 25.75 million total viewers in Live+7 for the episode and a 5.0 rating in the 18-49 demo.
Broken down, that’s a 6.22 million-viewer lift in time-shifted viewing — the fifth-largest seven-day audience in series history and its biggest since January 2014. The demo lift was +1.8, from a 3.2 to a 5.0.
The network noted that TBBT drew the largest audience for any regularly scheduled entertainment program during the 2018-19 season and slew HBO’s Game of Thrones series finale by nearly 9 million viewers.
CBS said the finale drew 18 million viewers on first count and added 5.4 million in Live+3, per Nielsen Media Research.
In his review of series-finale episode “The Stockholm Syndrome,” Deadline’s Geoff Boucher wrote: “The 279th and final episode of the history-making CBS hit comedy finished its 12-year mission with a picture-perfect landing that was capped, fittingly, by an award acceptance speech by Jim Parsons.”
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