Ratings: USA’s ‘Mr. Robot’ Steady in Finale, Ends As Cable’s No. 2 New Summer Drama
A softer lead-in and a week off seemed to impact same-night ratings for the finale of “Mr. Robot,” but the first new USA drama in years to have pop culture buzz still had a solid finish and ends summer among the top-rated new cable series in key advertising demos.
USA is expected to release additional ratings info next week when three-day DVR playback tallies are included, but Wednesday’s 74-minute finale of “Mr. Robot” averaged a 0.46 rating in adults 18-49 and 1.21 million viewers overall in Nielsen’s “live plus same-day” estimates. It was the No. 1 scripted original on cable Wednesday in 18-49 and 25-54.
In 18-49, it matched its June 24 premiere and was a bit below both its prior episode of two weeks ago (0.49) and its season average (0.48).
The “Robot” finale had been delayed a week by USA because the episode includes a scene with similarities to the real-life murders that occurred Aug. 26 on live TV in Virginia. Last night, it followed a repeat of “Law & Order: SVU” because “Suits,” which had served as the lead-in to “Mr. Robot” all summer, ended its season as scheduled last week.
Prior to Wednesday’s finale, “Mr. Robot” was averaging 1.4 million adults 18-49 (1.1 national rating), 1.5 million adults 25-54 (1.3 rating) and 2.8 million total viewers in Nielsen’s “most current” estimates. It ranks as the No. 2-rated new scripted basic cable drama series of the summer (behind AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead”) and No. 3 new scripted basic cable drama series of the year (behind “Fear the Walking Dead” and “Better Call Saul,” also from AMC).
See More: ‘Mr. Robot’ Finale Caps Mind-Bending Season, With Some Glitches (SPOILERS)
The show has been sampled roughly 17.4 million times across all platforms — including linear, VOD, iTunes, USAnetwork.com and multiple digital outlets. It has also garnered 9.3 million VOD transactions to date and was July’s No. 1 basic cable performer across Comcast’s on-demand platforms.
Specifically on USAnetwork.com, according to the network, “Mr. Robot” recorded the highest engagement rate of any first-season USA original (14 minutes vs. an average of six minutes) and has generated the most video streams for a new USA series in five years (6.5 million season to date).
Starring Rami Malek and Christian Slater, “Mr. Robot” revolves around an anti-social IT whiz who is drafted to work for an underground group of hackers focused on rooting out evil and corruption in corporate America. With another 100% “fresh” score for its finale, it became the first-ever series to earn a perfect score for every episode of a season on online review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
“Robot” was a shot in the arm to USA this summer and contributed to the network’s No. 1 finish among cable networks for the June-August period in key demos. Although it joined other cable networks in showing meaningful year-over-year declines, it held off a rising Discovery in both adults 18-49 and adults 25-54, according to preliminary estimates for the June 1-Aug. 30 ratings period.
Also for USA, “Suits” finished summer as a top 5 basic cable scripted drama among adults 18-49 and in the top 10 in total viewers, and “WWE Monday Night Raw” remained the most-watched, regularly scheduled year-round cable program. On the unscripted front, “Chrisley Knows Best” saw significant growth vs. last year, spiking 43% in 18-49, 68% in adults 25-54 and 58% in total viewers.
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