“Young Sheldon” reached nearly 9 million viewers with its finale after seven seasons on CBS Thursday night, marking the series’ biggest episode in four years.
The “Big Bang Theory” spinoff wrapped up with back-to-back episodes. The penultimate episode, “Funeral,” aired at 8 p.m. and averaged 8.8 million viewers before “Memoir” aired directly afterwards and closed the series with 8.95 million viewers — the most-watched program of the night, taking “Young Sheldon” to heights it hasn’t reached since the Season 3 finale hit 10.2 million viewers in April of 2020 and helping CBS to its biggest non-sports Thursday night since the same day. This was also a 28% improvement upon the Season 7 viewership average to date. (All statistics refer to Live + Same Day data from Nielsen.)
The conclusion also brought in stronger livestream viewership. According to CBS, live views of “Young Sheldon” on Paramount+, CBS.com and the CBS app saw a 39% jump from the week before and and a 50% jump compared to the Season 6 finale.
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Episodes of “Young Sheldon” continue to grow in delayed viewing, with Season 7 averaging 13 million when accounting for 35 days of viewership — a 17% increase from Season 6’s Live + 35 Day average. On Paramount+, CBS.com and the CBS app, streaming is up 200% year-over-year.
Thursday night capped off years of ratings successes for the “Big Bang Theory” spinoff, which was the most-watched new comedy when it debuted during the 2017-2018 broadcast season and became the biggest broadcast comedy overall during the 2019-2020 season after “The Big Bang Theory” left the air. It has remained the No. 1 comedy for five seasons in a row, and continued a now 19-year-old tradition of CBS hosting the most-watched comedy of the year. (Before “Young Sheldon” and “The Big Bang Theory,” the network won in comedy with “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Two and a Half Men.”)
Variety interviewed “Young Sheldon” executive producer Steve Holland about the finale — which featured original Sheldon actor Jim Parsons and “Big Bang Theory” co-star Mayim Bialik — as well as the upcoming spinoff, “Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage.”
