'The Killing' Ratings Dip in Finale, Still Down From First Season

AMC

With the two-season mystery of Rosie Larsen's killer finally coming to an end on Sunday night, The Killing still didn't manage to see a ratings jump from its typical sophomore season performance.

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AMC's 9 p.m. broadcast of the finale earned 1.45 million viewers and a 0.5 rating among adults 18-49, tying April's opener in the demo and shrinking just over 300,000 (down from 1.8 million) with the total audience. The 10 p.m. encore added another 500,000 viewers, giving the episode a 1.9 million haul for the night.

That viewership, while also down from the 1.84 million that tuned into last Sunday's penultimate offering, is relatively on par with the the series' performance throughout its second season. Though it hit a demo low of a 0.3 adults rating on May 8, The Killing matched its premiere's 0.5 adults rating for most of the 13-episode run.

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Still, The Killing hasn't captured the attention of its first season. The AMC drama originally debuted to 2.7 million viewers in its inaugural broadcast, dipping slightly before rebounding to 2.2 million viewers (and a 0.7 rating among adults 18-49) in its season ender -- which, in what some viewers and critics called a misleading move, delayed the resolution to the murder mystery by another year.

In the wake of the finale, The Killing is the only current scripted series on AMC not yet guaranteed another season. The network has only ever canceled the 2010 drama Rubicon.