FX drama “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” wrapped its season its season with a nice ratings surge Tuesday night as the series detailed the verdict and its aftermath in the so-called “trial of the century” more than 20 years ago.
The network will release three-day ratings for “The People v. O.J. Simpson” next week, but the drama’s 73-minute finale averaged 3.27 million viewers and a 1.34 rating in adults 18-49 in same-day numbers, according to Nielsen. This was up about 500,000 viewers from last week’s series low and the largest audience since episode three on Feb. 16.
The show has been a strong performer, but declined some following its record-setting Feb. 2 premiere, which drew 5.11 million viewers and a 2.0 rating in adults 18-49. In “live plus-3,” the premiere telecast drew a whopping 8.3 million viewers — the largest ever audience for an FX premiere.
“The People v. O.J. Simpson” has been an especially big gainer in “live plus-3” ratings, more than doubling its “live plus same-day” numbers every week. And given that Tuesday’s finale didn’t wrap until about 11:30 p.m., it could see even bigger lifts for the finale.
Among all scripted dramas on television this spring, the FX series ranks seventh among adults 18-49 in Nielsen’s “live plus-3” estimates, trailing only AMC’s “The Walking Dead” and the top-drawer broadcast dramas including “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Criminal Minds.”
In other Tuesday cable ratings highlights, CNN was again the demo leader among the news networks for coverage of Wisconsin primary results. The network’s primetime total of adults 25-54 (650,000) beat out Fox News (601,000) and was well ahead of MSNBC (378,000). FNC was an easy winner in total viewers (3.02 million), followed by CNN (1.90 million) and MSNBC (1.48 million).
