Final national ratings are in for Regis Philbin‘s last week on Live!, and the show posted huge gains for the week, with his final episode bringing in 9.45 million viewers.
The highly watched Nov. 18 broadcast, which brought in 23 percent of home’s using televisions, pushed Philbin’s last week to an average of 5.57 million viewers from Nov. 14-18.
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Prior to his departure, the series was averaging 3.42 million per episode.
Another big daytime exit in 2011, the final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, did best Live! by a bit. A season of hype led to 16.4 million total viewers for Winfrey’s final broadcast.
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After last week’s metered market ratings, national numbers for the episode give it a 6.7 rating households rating. The average household rating for the week was a 4.2.
The first week of Live! With Kelly, with Kelly Ripa manning the show with guest co-hosts Jerry Seinfeld and Jerry O’Connell, didn’t lose much momentum from the Thanksgiving holiday. The retitled show delivered a 3.4 households rating according to metered markets.
