9.1 Million Viewers Send Off TNT's THE CLOSER

91-Million-Viewers-Send-Off-TNTs-THE-CLOSER-20010101

TNT's blockbuster series The Closer ended its extraordinary seven-season run last night with 9,075,000 viewers in Live + Same Day, making it cable's #1 series telecast for the summer-to-date.

The Closer's finale was followed by the debut of TNT's newest drama, Major Crimes, which brought in 7,184,000 viewers in Live + Same Day to rank as cable's #1 new series launch for the year-to-date. TNT has now charted cable's Top 3 new series launches of 2012, with Major Crimes followed by the June 13 premiere of Dallas (6.9 million viewers) and the July 9 debut of Perception (5.6 million viewers).

Since premiering in 2005, The Closer has assembled a remarkable string of successes. The award-winning drama is the only series in cable history to rank #1 for five consecutive years, which it did from 2005 to 2009. This year, The Closer is once again topping the charts as cable's most-watched series for the summer-to-date.

Within the pantheon of The Closer's many highly rated episodes, last night's series finale is the drama's second-most-watched episode ever. It ranks closely behind the show's September 2007 midseason finale, which drew 9,207,000 viewers in Live + Same Day. The finale is expected to surpass that episode's Live + 7 delivery (9,948,000) when final data becomes available in two weeks.

Among key demos, last night's finale of The Closer averaged more than 2 million adults 18-49 and 2.7 million adults 25-54 in Live + Same Day. The premiere of Major Crimes brought in 1.5 million adults 18-49 and 2.0 million adults 25-54. In both demos, it now ranks behind Dallas among cable's top new drama series launches for the year-to-date, with Perception coming in third among adults 25-54.

Starting next Monday, Major Crimes will move into The Closer's timeslot at 9 p.m. (ET/PT), followed by all-new episodes of Perception at 10 p.m. (ET/PT).

For seven memorable seasons, Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson and the LAPD's Major Crimes unit have closed some of television's most intriguing, mind-bending and surprising cases. This summer, Johnson and her team faced their final cases together as the record-breaking blockbuster series starring Emmy(R) winner Kyra Sedgwick came to an end. Sedgwick has been joined by The Closer's extraordinary Screen Actors Guild Award(R)-nominated cast includes Jon Tenney as Brenda's husband, FBI Special Agent Fritz Howard; J.K. Simmons as Police Chief Will Pope; Corey Reynolds as Detective Sergeant David Gabriel; Robert Gossett as Commander Taylor; G.W. Bailey as Lieutenant Provenza; Tony Denison as Lieutenant Andy Flynn, Michael Paul Chan as Lieutenant Mike Tao, Raymond Cruz as Detective Julio Sanchez and Phillip P. Keene as audio-visual technician Buzz Watson. Two-time Oscar(R) nominee Mary McDonnell also starred in The Closer as Captain Sharon Raydor, the role she continues to play in Major Crimes.

Page 2 >>