Friends finale draws over 5 million in Canada

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2004-05-07

TORONTO - The end-story might have been a bit oversold, then underwhelming and a tad predictable, but the ratings numbers in Canada for the final episode of Friends handily beat anything else that's been on the air in a while.

Yesterday evening's finale of the 10-year-old sitcom drew 3.370 million (A18-49) viewers nationally, which beat the Academy Awards by 15% against this demographic. The one-hour episode drew a 2+ audience of 5.159 million on Global Television.

The final episode grabbed a 25.9 rating among A18-49, a 27.3 among A25-54 and a 29.3 among F25-54, according to BBM People Meter Data. It reached its highest ratings among W18-49 and F18-34 garnering a 29.9. More than 1.3 million watched the series finale in the Toronto market alone.

In Vancouver, the finale earned a 32.6 rating.

On top of that, Thursday night's episode of Survivor: All-Stars drew 2.241 million (A18-49) viewers nationally, with a total 2+ audience of 3.668 million. Survivor was sandwiched between an hour of Friends clips and the hour-long series-ender.

U.S. reports say that the last Friends episode drew over 51 million people, showing that in this day and age of multi-media fragmentation, it's safe to say that nothing will likely ever match the 100 million-plus who took in the last episode of M*A*S*H in 1983.