It's sad to say goodbye to a TV favorite. These days, though, it's not hard to find the good ones on syndication. Let's look at the biggest audience-getters to say goodbye. (This list is according to Reuters, Variety, Nielsen Media Research and USA Today.)
|
Series |
Number of Viewers (in millions) |
Date |
Network |
|
M*A*S*H |
105.9 |
2/28/83 |
CBS |
|
Cheers |
80.4 |
5/20/93 |
NBC |
|
Seinfeld |
76.3 |
5/14/98 |
NBC |
|
Friends |
52.5 |
5/6/04 |
NBC |
|
Magnum, P.I. |
50.7 |
5/1/88 |
CBS |
|
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny
Carson |
50.0 |
5/22/92 |
NBC |
|
The Cosby Show |
44.4 |
4/30/92 |
NBC |
|
All In The Family |
40.2 |
4/8/79 |
CBS |
|
Family Ties |
36.3 |
5/14/89 |
NBC |
|
Home Improvement |
35.5 |
5/25/99 |
ABC |
|
|
33.3 |
5/3/91 |
CBS |
|
Everybody Loves Raymond |
32.9 |
5/16/05 |
CBS |
|
Gunsmoke |
30.9 |
3/31/75 |
CBS |
|
The Fugitive |
30.0 |
8/29/67 |
ABC |
|
Newhart |
29.5 |
5/21/90 |
CBS |
|
Star Trek: TNG |
27.8 |
5/23/94 |
Synd. |
|
The Golden Girls |
27.2 |
5/9/92 |
CBS |
|
Frasier |
25.2 |
5/13/04 |
NBC |
|
Night Court |
24.6 |
5/13/92 |
NBC |
|
Full House |
24.3 |
5/23/95 |
ABC |
Seems as if the axe always
falls in May. (Isn’t that sweeps month
too?) For some shows, it reached its end
and had nowhere else to go. After all,
M*A*S*H extended the Korean War for 11 years.
Or important cast members quit.
Or the ratings plunged and the show lost its audience. We watched whole casts grow up. Although we mercifully didn’t see the
children much in Everybody Loves Raymond, they really got bigger. They just stayed in the background – and none
of the adults got older. In Full House,
the Olsen Twins started as babies.
Weren’t they dating when it ended?
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