Primetime Ratings: ‘Empire’ Goes Out a Supernova in Finale

Empire ended its hugely successful debut season with a flourish on Wednesday.

The two-hour season finale of the Fox breakout hit scored a 6.5 rating with adults 18-49 and 16.7 million total viewers, according to Nielsen time-zone adjusted numbers.

That amounts to gains of 12% in both measures from last week. Empire ended its debut season without a single week-to-week drop among total viewers; within the demo, Empire only dipped once. The hip hop drama has also officially surpassed CBS’ The Big Bang Theory as the highest-rated broadcast show in the demo.

Despite airing opposite Empire, CBS’ Survivor was steady with last week with a 2.2, while CSI: Cyber dipped 18% to a 1.4. CBS came in second with a 2.0/6.

On the CW, Arrow earned a 0.8, down 27% from its last episode, while Supernatural scored a 0.7 in its new Wednesday timeslot, down a tenth from its last episode. The CW tied with NBC repeats with a 0.8/2.

ABC aired mostly repeats, except for the Diane Sawyer special The Untold Story of the Sound of Music at 10 p.m., which drew a 1.4 rating, to finish in third with a 1.3/4.