Viewers discuss the actual ratings for the Seinfeld finale, with disagreement over exact numbers and discussion of how viewing parties may have affected official counts.
The early results of last night's ratings are in. The "Seinfeld" finale pulled in 76 million viewers--far short of the 105 for final "M*A*S*H", and even short of the 80 million or so for the last "Cheers".
I didn't think it would break any records myself, but the ratings obviously were huge...
Dixon
On 15 May 98 19:16:28 GMT, "Dixon Hayes" wrote:
According to Variety, 108 million viewers watched at least part of the show. And they put the MASH number at 125 million.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/entertainment/story.html?s=z/reuters/980515/entertainment/stories/television_seinfeld_9.html
EvF
(Aside from this supposed science of counting viewers being ludicrous...)
I heard earlier this week on ET that the network execs were expecting the finale numbers to be "smaller" because of all the Seinfeld parties skewing the numbers. Households normally accounting for 4 viewers could now have more viewers not accounted for.
Linda *who again thinks the "viewer accounting" is a ridiculous concept, but it certainly accounts for the supposed popularity of junk!