ABC's Bachelor Has Whooping Views For After Final Rose

The proof is always in the pudding and with all the various Bachelor Finale Theories including the now famous Reality Steve Conspiracy Theory, The Bachelor's two-hour finale was seen by 15.5 million people and received a 5.4 preliminary adults 18-49 rating and a 13 share.  It's The Bachelor's biggest total viewer tally since 2005 and its highest adult demo rating since 2003.

Even more viewers tuned into the "After the Final Rose" special at 10 p.m. A whooping 17.5 million, 6.7/16 actually watched the show where Jason dumps Melissa for Molly drawing a rating that very few series this year can match. "Rose" had the best numbers ever for the special.

Milking The Bachelor for all it's worth, ABC aired a second After The Final Rose special the night after the first After The Final Rose aired.

The Bachelor After The Final Rose Part 2

ABC announced in a press release for the media that "The Bachelor: After the Final Rose, Part 2" drew ABC's best numbers for a 10:00 p.m. Tuesday telecast in viewers and young adults in 15 months - since 11/20/07.

It was ABC's highest Tuesday 10:00 p.m. telecast in its core Women 18-34 demo in nearly 8 years - since 5/22/01.

Similar to Part 1 that aired the previous night, "The Bachelor: After the Final Rose, Part 2" won the 10 o'clock hour in Total Viewers (10.9 million) and across all key Adults demographics: Adults 18-34 (3.5/10), Adults 18-49 (4.0/11) and Adults 25-54 (4.5/11).

"Part 2" posted the Net's best numbers in the hour in over 3 months - since 11/25/08. In addition, "The Bachelor: After the Final Rose, Part 2" stood as the No. 2 program of the night across the Adults demo, behind only Fox's "American Idol."

From The Bottom In The Rankings To The Top

The Bachelor was at the height of viewership in 2002 drawing 17 million viewers.   In 2005 the viewership dipped to its lowest level of 7 million viewers.  The average viewership during the Jason Mesnick Bachelor season has been 11 million plus and climbing steadily, especially after the buzz about The Bachelor Conspiracy was leaked by Steve Carbone of RealitySteve.com.

At one point The Bachelor which had been in the Top Five of all TV shows fell into the bottom 50.  There was even talk the show would be cancelled.

Obviously ABC is thrilled with the results.  And Jason Mesnick who dumped Melissa Rycroft for Molly Malaney?  He told US Magazine in the March 9th issue back in February "I feel really good" he gushed.  "I'm just so happy about how everything turned out."

Topping The Ratings

Although ABC announced the next Bachelorette is Jason reject, Jillian, they definitely will have their work cut out for them in terms of generating as much buzz or an equally shocking ending for Jillian.

Personally, I think ABC should do what The Donald did and go with a Celebrity Bachelor or a Celebrity Bachelorette.  Even it if's a C celebrity, it will definitely attract more viewers.  Just look at Dancing With The Stars.