The absence of Fox’s juggernaut “Empire” on Wednesday night offered a ratings boost for its broadcast rivals, with NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU” season finale winning the night with a 1.5 rating in the adults 18-49 demo and 7.1 million total viewers, marking a 15% increase in the demo week-to-week and a 7% rise versus last year’s finale.
The rest of NBC’s lineup was steady, with “Heartbeat” notching a 0.7 rating in the demo and “Chicago P.D.” earning a 1.4, matching its year-ago finale rating.
Following a rerun of “Finding Nemo,” ABC’s “Nashville” took its final bow on Wednesday by rising a tick from its penultimate episode, with the series finale earning a 0.9 rating in adults 18-49 and 4.1 million viewers.
CBS aired its “Price is Right: Amazing Race” special at 8 p.m., which scored a 1.2 rating and 6.7 million viewers, followed by two episodes of “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.” Both airings nabbed a 1.0 rating, with the 9 p.m. installment posting 5.6 million viewers and the 10 p.m. season finale drawing 5.2 million.
Without the halo effect of “Empire,” “Rosewood” dipped to a 0.8 in the demo and 3.4 million viewers, while the hip-hop drama’s timeslot replacement, “Wayward Pines,” notched a 0.9 and 3.1 million viewers. Last season, the show was a slow burner, beginning with a 1.0 for its series premiere (and almost doubling that same-night average after three days of DVR playback), building to a 1.2 in “live plus same-day” ratings by the season’s end and standing as summer’s most-watched scripted broadcast series in the demo.
The CW’s “Arrow” and “Supernatural” finales both garnered a 0.8 among adults 18-49, with “Arrow” drawing 2.2 million viewers and “Supernatural” fetching 1.9 million to close out their seasons.
