Letterman's Late Show Finale Bests Primetime With 21-Year Audience High

VIA: The much ballyhooed series finale of Late Show With David Letterman on Wednesday night/Thursday morning delivered its largest audience — 13.8 million total viewers — in 21 years, since its Feb. 25, 1994 outing (which led out of Winter Olympics coverage).

In the 18-49 demo, Late Show scored a 3.1, its best rating since Dec. 1, 2005, which featured the end of Dave’s 16-year “feud” with Oprah Winfrey.

Letterman’s Late Show sendoff thus outdrew and outrated every Wednesday primetime broadcast, and on the final night of May sweeps; TVLine readers gave the big goodbye an average grade of “A.”