An audience of 25.4 million viewers tuned into NBC Thursday night for the finale of Frasier, according to preliminary overnight ratings from Nielsen Media Research.
That means the long-running sitcom starring Kelsey Grammer as Dr. Frasier Crane drew only about half the audience that tuned into NBC May 6 for the end of Friends (52 million).
While 25.4 million is a fairly large audience, it is certainly not one for the record books. The finale of M*A*S*H on CBS was seen in 1983 by 105 million viewers - the largest audience for a final episode in network history. Cheers, the NBC series that gave birth to the character of Dr. Crane, drew an audience of 80.4 million when it signed off in 1993.
