Well, crikey! The Dancing With the Stars finale was a bloody ripper in the ratings: Just over 9.2 million viewers watched Robert Irwin and partner Witney Carson take home the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy on Tuesday, giving the ABC competition series its most-watched finale since 2016 — and the best same-day ratings of any entertainment broadcast on all television since March’s Oscars. Per preliminary Nielsen numbers (updates will be released next week), DWTS notched a 2.15 rating among adults under 50, its best finale performance in the key demographic in a decade. The last time the show did so well in that metric was when Irwin’s sister, Bindi, took home top honors in 2015.

The list of ratings superlatives for DWTS ’s three-hour finale is long, but among its accomplishment

See Full Page