The Question, Wednesday 3/18/15: Will Empire End on Another High Note?

Tonight brings a temporary end to the most phenomenal broadcast TV ratings story in at least a decade. Only about one new show per season starts as high on a historical-adjusted basis as Empire, and only about one new show per season grows in week two. Empire did both, and it only continued to escalate from there. Its last two 5.8's were the two biggest broadcast entertainment series episodes of the season, even topping The Big Bang Theory's high from premiere week, and they were also more than 50% ahead of that premiere from ten weeks ago. Will Empire end on another high note? That's The Question for Wednesday, March 18, 2015.

Empire This Season

3.8 -> 4.0 -> 4.4 -> 4.3 -> 4.6 -> 4.8 -> 5.2 -> 5.4 -> 5.8 -> 5.8

For a show that has grown almost every week, it's hard not to expect it again for the big finale. What could hold it back is the extra episode at 8:00, an hour that is lower-viewed and, probably more importantly, not Empire's regular timeslot. Many a show has underachieved in these out-of-timeslot airings. But in the case of a finale for something as hot as Empire I think "underachieve" means it just goes very close to last week's rating. Then it'll be up a good bit in the 9:00 half.

Over/Under: 6.15. (If the finals separate the 8:00 and 9:00 episodes, the over/under for the sum of the two will be 12.35.)

No entries accepted after 6:00am ET the morning after the date in the headline. If editing your pick, please leave a separate comment. All results based on final ratings rounded to the nearest tenth.