A Record-Breaking 10.3 Million People Watched the Breaking Bad Finale

A huge ratings surge: just under 2 million viewers watched the show's season-four finale

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Frank Ockenfels / AMC

Breaking Bad‘s season finale brought in 10.3 million viewers. Not only is that series-best number impressive on its own, but it’s stunning considering that only 1.9 million people watched last year’s season four finale.

Those numbers also cement the AMC hit’s status as the comeback show of the year: The second half of the fifth season premiered in August to 5.9 million viewers, and last week’s penultimate episode brought in 6.6 million.

They also demonstrate that Netflix may actually be boosting live TV viewership, not canabalizing it. After Breaking Bad won best drama series at the 2013 Emmys, show creator Vince Gilligan credited Netflix for helping viewers to catch up on the show so that it could eventually reach these astronomical numbers.

[Entertainment Weekly]