7 Most-Watched TV Episodes in NBC History, Ranked
This Collider article ranks the seven most-watched episodes in NBC's history, spanning the network's decades-long run of landmark sitcoms and dramas. It highlights how shows such as The Office, Frasier and ER produced standout instalments that drew exceptionally large audiences, cementing NBC's role in what the piece calls the Second Golden Age of American television, particularly during the "Must-See TV" era of the late 1980s and 1990s.
Among the entries, The Office's Season 5 finale "Stress Relief", airing after Super Bowl XLIII, pulled in 22.5 million viewers and remains the sitcom's highest-rated episode. Frasier's series finale "Goodnight, Seattle" drew more than 25 million viewers across its two parts, making it one of television's most-watched sitcom send-offs. ER's Season 2 episode "Hell and High Water", featuring George Clooney's Dr Doug Ross, is also cited as a defining moment for the long-running medical drama, though the full ranking and remaining entries are not detailed in the excerpt provided.
– The Office's "Stress Relief" (2009) drew 22.5 million viewers, its highest-rated episode.
– Frasier's finale "Goodnight, Seattle" attracted over 25 million viewers.
– ER's "Hell and High Water" is named a career-defining episode for the show.
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Must-See TV was NBC's Thursday-night lineup of comedies and dramas that dominated American television ratings from the late 1980s through the 1990s. Shows built and broadcast during this period, including sitcoms like The Office and Frasier and the hospital drama ER, are remembered partly for the huge live audiences they drew, at a time before streaming and on-demand viewing changed how people watched television.
The article looks back at seven individual episodes from NBC's history that pulled in the largest audiences, using US television ratings as the measure. These include comedy send-offs and milestone instalments, such as Frasier's finale and an episode of The Office that aired straight after the Super Bowl, a slot broadcasters use because of the huge number of people already watching. ER, one of the longest-running medical dramas, also features, with an early episode notable for helping launch actor George Clooney's career.
This kind of ranking matters because it reflects a period when a single television broadcast could reach tens of millions of people at once, something rarely seen today given how fragmented viewing habits have become across streaming services and on-demand platforms.