Andy DehnartThe Mole 3 ended its run last night, and likely ended its time on ABC, as the show managed to lose even more of its already low number of viewers.
Only 2.97 million viewers watched Jon Kelley reveal the mole’s identity and announce the winner, according to TV By the Numbers. That’s a loss of two million viewers since the debut, which was watched by 4.97 million people, and even down from last week’s episode, which 3.06 million people watched.
To be fair, the finale faced off against the Olympics, which were watched by 33.63 million viewers in the 10 p.m. hour, but also at 10, a repeat of CSI: Miami pulled in 6.46 million people. The timeslot may not have been the best one ever, but if a repeat of David Caruso’s terrible acting can get more than twice the viewers, there’s something else that’s gone wrong.
The show’s producers campaigned to get more people to watch, and some fans are campaigning to save The Mole, it’s unlikely that will succeed, if only because it’s more annoying than endearing to waste food by sending it to a television network. While ABC president Steve McPherson was a fan of the show, he told me that the show would die if its ratings didn’t improve, and they did precisely the opposite.