A much-anticipated reveal during the summer finale of ABC Family’s “Pretty Little Liars” has lifted the young-adult drama to its top young-adult ratings in nearly two years.
Tuesday’s episode, in which the liars finally learn the identity of “A,” averaged a 1.4 rating in adults 18-49 and 3.087 million viewers overall, according to Nielsen “live plus same-day ratings” — up week to week by a mammoth 65% in the demo (from 0.84 rating) and 52% in total viewers (from 2.031 million).
The 1.4 same-day rating in 18-49 is the highest for any ad-supported scripted telecast since the June premiere of ABC’s “The Whispers” did a 1.5. And its 2.1 rating in adults 18-34 is higher than all ad-supported scripted programs since the season finale of CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” in May (2.4).
Tuesday’s “Pretty Little Liars” summer finale became the most tweeted TV series telecast of the summer — and the No. 2 most tweeted cable TV series episode on record — amassing over 1.6 million tweets, accounting for 50% of all Twitter TV activity for the day. The tweets were seen by a Twitter TV audience of 6.2 million unique users and generated over 68 million Twitter TV impressions, according to Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings.
The show now accounts for the top 6 most tweeted scripted telecasts in cable TV history, led by the August 2013 episode “Now You See Me, Now You Don’t” with 1.892 million tweets.
On television, “Pretty Little Liars” was cable’s No. 1 program on Tuesday in adults 18-49 (behind only NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” overall), and it led all of television for the night in adults 18-34 and women 18-34 (3.4). It’s summer’s No. 1-rated ad-supported scripted series in numerous categories, including adults 18-49, adults 18-34 and persons 12-34.
See more: ‘Pretty Little Liars’ Creator Talks Possible Movie, Season 8
Tuesday’s big numbers are especially impressive coming at a time when a glut of scripted offerings has resulted in virtually across-the-board ratings declines for returning scripted series this summer. “Liars” hasn’t done a higher demo rating since October 2013, and hasn’t drawn a larger overall audience since March 2014.
Despite the huge “Liars” rating, ABC Family was unable to attract much of an audience for the premiere of unscripted series “Next Step Realty: NYC” (0.26 rating in 18-49, 518,000 viewers overall), which aired immediately after the hit drama’s finale.
The network is expected to release “live plus-3” ratings for “Pretty Little Liars” early next week.
Elsewhere Tuesday in cable, OWN’s “The Haves and the Have Nots” remained hot (0.95 rating in 18-49, 3.12 million viewers overall), drawing its second best demo score of the summer. It edged out “Pretty Little Liars” and finished behind only TNT’s “Rizzoli & Isles” (4.33 million) among cable’s most-watched shows for the night; it also ranked No. 1 on cable in adults 25-54 (1.2) and women 25-54 (1.75).
FX’s “Tyrant” hit summer highs of its own Tuesday (0.49 rating in 18-49, 1.35 million viewers overall) and was cable’s No. 1 scripted original for the night in men 18-49 (0.53 rating). In Live+3 prior to last week’s episode, it was averaging a 0.72 rating in 18-49 and about 2.2 million viewers overall.
TOP TUESDAY PRIMETIME CABLE ORIGINALS
(Live plus same-day)
Adults 18-49 rating
1. Pretty Little Liars (ABC Family), 1.4
2. The Haves and the Have Nots (OWN), 0.95
3. Deadliest Catch (Discovery), 0.80
4. Rizzoli & Isles (TNT), 0.75
4. Ink Master (Spike), 0.75
6. Real Housewives of NYC (Bravo), 0.56
7. Dance Moms (Lifetime), 0.54
8. Clipped (TBS), 0.52
8. Chopped Grill Masters (Food), 0.52
10. Total Divas (E!), 0.51
Total Viewers (in millions)
1. Rizzoli & Isles (TNT), 4.33
2. The Haves and the Have Nots (OWN), 3.12
3. Pretty Little Liars (ABC Family), 3.09
4. The Kelly File (FNC), 2.68
5. The O’Reilly Factor (FNC), 2.48
6. Proof (TNT), 2.32
7. Hannity (FNC), 2.23
8. Deadliest Catch (Discovery), 2.19
9. House Hunters (HGTV), 1.94
10. House Hunters Intl. (HGTV), 1.76
Source: Nielsen
Each 18-49 ratings point represents roughly 1.27 million viewers
