'Lost' Finale Draws 13.5 Million Viewers

It was a season high for Lost, but not a sonic boom by any means. The series finale averaged about 13.5 million viewers, according to Neilsen (as reported by the phenomenal TV By the Numbers). It was clearly the top choice on Sunday night, but when you don't average much more than 10 million viewers on a given week and you're the kind of show that requires constant viewing, it's tough to see how Lost could have attracted millions more. The two hour special that ran before the finale, Lost: The Final Journey, averaged just under 10 million, meaning the combination of all things Smoke Monster pushed ABC to the easiest win it may see during the sweeps, doubling up NBC and its Celebrity Apprentice/Minute to Win It/Dateline combo. Fox had the season finales of The Simpsons, The Cleveland Show, and an hour-long Family Guy, and the two returning shows were down considerably from last year. The final Lost peaked, predicatbly, in its final hour, when 15 million tuned in. The pilot episode had 18.6 million tuning in, and while the send-off got impressive numbers, it wouldn't have been the highest rated episode of any of the first three seasons. A lot of that, I would think, stems from season four getting off to a rocky start; that seemed to be the turning point for a lot of frustrated viewers waiting for answers, only to see more questions being asked.