Finale Ratings Information Coming Soon...

I'll keep updating with ratings information as it becomes available, & my article should be up by the early afternoon, with updates throughout the day.

Two things to keep in mind...

1. The first reported numbers will be the preliminary numbers. For big events like this, the final numbers, which will be released in the late afternoon or early evening, tend to be significantly higher, so expect an increase from what is first reported.

2. The Nielsen ratings (& number of viewers) will be much lower than the number of people who actually watched the finale. The major flaw of Nielsen is that it only measures in-home viewing. This means it won't include people who watched the finale at another person's home, in a college dorm or on a campus, at a bar or at a restaurant, or at any of the many large Friends finale viewing parties. NBC will release its own estimate of the actual number of people who saw the final episode based on random sampling conducted Friday morning, & this number will be MUCH higher. I'll report both numbers in my article, & though Nielsen's will still be the "official" numbers that will go down in history, NBC's estimate will be much closer to reality.

--DanG

<< 2. The Nielsen ratings (& number of viewers) will be much lower than the number of people who actually watched the finale. The major flaw of Nielsen is that it only measures in-home viewing. This means it won't include people who watched the finale at another person's home, in a college dorm or on a campus, at a bar or at a restaurant, or at any of the many large Friends finale viewing parties. NBC will release its own estimate of the actual number of people who saw the final episode based on random sampling conducted Friday morning, & this number will be MUCH higher. I'll report both numbers in my article, & though Nielsen's will still be the "official" numbers that will go down in history, NBC's estimate will be much closer to reality.>>

Whilst I'm fully willing to have "Friends" take over the record set by the finale of M*A*SH set in 1983, the initial numbers indicate that last night's show won't even come close. Although TIVO has changed the way things are watched there were viewing parties all over the place in 1983 as well as night.

So, sadly the 51 million announced this morning for Friends won't double ( and then some) to pass the 126 million for "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" in 1983. I don't think its going to even pass Cheers' numbers.

Sorry gang. It doesn't lessen the impact our show has had for the culture.

Figgs

With 500+ channels to watch, TIVO, VCRs and the season finale DVD coming out in Tuesday, it is no surprise the 51 million was a low estimate. The rating winner is MASH's farwell which in my opinion was way better then the friends farewell.

I just dont buy into the 500 channels stuff. A Friends fan is a Friends fan and they are going to watch the show. If you have watched Friends for the last ten years before 500 channels were around then your going to watch the last one. Lets see "I sure would like to watch the Friends Finale, after all I have watched it for ten years and I would really like to see how it ends up....but theres a show on Bumble Bees on channel 475. Hummm

It's a fact. Look at the ratings trend in the past 20 years. No airing of any show in the past 12 years has made the top 100 of all time, and no show ever will again. Friends' audience of 52.5 million is basically the largest possible non-Super Bowl audience. Nothing has pulled a higher audience in the past six years that the Friends finale.

Average network ratings are 45% lower than they were just 15 years ago, and more than 50% lower than they were 20 years ago, when the M*A*S*H finale aired. Cable audiences, practically none-existent then, are now, taken in total, BIGGER than network audiences on average.

The fact that Friends had above a 50 share in adults 18-49 on Thursday night--meaning more than half of those in this group who had their televisions on at the time were tuned to NBC--is truly remarkable. The Friends finale exceeded all expectations, and represented more or less the greatest potential success in the new age of television.

--DanG

[email] (Dan Ginsburg) wrote:

The 18-49 is the key. M*A*S*H aired at a time when there wasn't such network targeting of shows based on a specific viewer demographic. M*A*S*H had fans of virtually all ages.

Friends was targeted to the 18-49 demo group favored by advertisers. But there was no reason for viewers outside that age range to watch Friends and for the most part, they didn't.

Everett W.

[email] (EvWill) wrote in message news:...

True, though even if Friends were as M*A*S*H was in older demographics, it STILL couldn't pull much more than about 60 million viewers. Television viewership just isn't the same anymore.

--DanG