Highest rated single television broadcast in US history (non sports) was

On the 28th of February, 1983 CBS broadcasted the last episode of MASH, which was the highest rated single television translation in history. At the peak 125 million people in the USA watched the broadcast! It made 60% of the US households and 77% of all the TV viewers of the whole country.

MASH was an American series telling the story of the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. Some stories depicted in the show were based on real events.

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51 Comments

Mr.LaFaye

Loved the movie too. The Most Watched TV Series Finales of All Time M*A*S*H — 105 million. M*A*S*H | CBS. Cheers — 84.4 million. Cheers | CBS. ... The Fugitive — 78.0 million. The Fugitive | ABC. ... Seinfeld — 76.3 million. Seinfeld | NBC. ... Friends — 52.5 million. Friends | NBC. ... Magnum, P.I. — 50.7 million. ... The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson — 50.0 million. ... The Cosby Show — 44.4 million. ...

Stephen Forest

Just heard that Alan Alda passed away from Parkinson's disease. A sad day.

Rebecca Woods

My favorite episode was when Col. Henry Blake was told he was going home.But it was also the one that made me cry.Radar coming into the surgery room and telling everyone that Col.Blake's plane went down into the sea of Japan, there were no survivors.The first three years were my favorite ones.That last episode was so different than the other episodes because there wasn't any laugh track.The last image of the words spelled out for Hawkeye to read as he goes up in the helicopter saying goodbye was sad.There will never be another show like that.

Rachel Weatherby

Excellent show. Taped that episode for my husband who was a huge fan of the show but wasn’t able to watch it when it aired then accidentally recorded over it!!!

Dave Weaver

They didn’t air it again until ten years later, I was 8 when it first aired and didn’t understand the full affect of the episode until I watched it when I was in college.

joycekingsmith

Todd Van Dell, Thank you for your answer. That makes a lot of sense. It also answers a lot of questions.

Joanne Serin

swrichardson, I loved that part!

Todd Van Dell

krkyates, It was indeed set during the Korean War era, but, throughout its run, it was an open secret that the "Korean" war was actually a very thinly-veiled Vietnam War. They could get away with open commentary on the Vietnam War by pretending the setting was the Korean War.