‘America’s Got Talent’ Finale Ratings Hit 6-Year High, ‘MasterChef’ Down From 2016, ‘Big Brother’ Up

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details of last night’s America’s Got Talent, Big Brother & MasterChef season finales

With the flood of premieres for the new season just days away, Wednesday saw a trio of big finales as America’s Got Talent (2.9/11), Big Brother (2.1/8) and MasterChef (1.1/4) all wrapped up their summer runs.

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All of which means in a highly competitive Season 12 and Tyra Banks’ debut as energetic AGT host, 12-year-old Darci Lynne Farmer was the third child to win the series and the first ventriloquist since Paul Zerdin took the prize back in Season 10. There was a million-dollar prize and a chance at a Vegas show for Farmer, just like Season 2 winner and fellow ventriloquist Terry Fator scored.

The big win for AGT itself was last night’s finale rising 4% among adults 18-49 and 7% in total viewers to 15.6 million from the Season 11 ender. That means — with the comparisons to that 12-year-old Grace Vanderwaal-winning season that concluded on September 14, 2016, and more — the show produced and co-judged by Simon Cowell scored a season high and a six-year finale high in the key demo and a seven-year audience high in fast-affiliate numbers.

The top show of the night overall, AGT also was up 38% from its September 13 edition. With AGT followed by the Season 2 debut of The Good Place (1.4/5), which was down 39% from its Season 1 opener that had a post-Voice premiere slot, the Comcast-owned net easily won Wednesday with a 2.4/9 rating and 12.17 million viewers. Being that Tuesday’s AGT adjusted up a tenth to a 3.0/12, there is a good chance last night’s show will see demo changes that could see it as the Season 12 high overall later in the day.

Over on CBS, the Season 19 finale of Big Brother saw Josh Martinez take home the $500,000 win over Season 18 runner-up Paul Abrahamian by one tight vote. Up 17% from last week, the Julie Chen-hosted show also rose a tenth in the demo from its Season 18 ender of September 21 last year. Pushed back an hour to 10 PM, the Season 1 finale of Salvation (0.6/3) also was up a tenth from its September 13 show.

Meanwhile, things cooled down on the Season 8 finale of MasterChef. Facing the AGT and BB finales, unlike last year when it was just the NBC show, the Gordon Ramsay-led cooking competition saw Bensonhurst dancer Dino Luciano win the $250,000 prize and a slot as a cruise chef. Finishing third place among the season enders last night, MasterChef was down 21% in the demo from its Season 7 finale and 15% from the Season 8 high of its September 13 show.

ABC and the CW stayed out of the finales and premieres game last night with a schedule full of encores.

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