Small screen
Friends bid good-bye
51 million tune in for Friends finale
AP, New York
In the end, Rachel, Ross, Joey, Phoebe, Monica and Chandler had a lot of friends. An estimated 51.1 million people tuned in for the final Friends on NBC Thursday night, watching the crowd-pleasing story line of Ross and Rachel declaring their undying love for each other. That makes it the fourth most-watched television series finale ever, behind M-A-S-H (105 million in 1983), Cheers (80.4 million in 1993) and Seinfeld (76.2 million in 1998), according to Nielsen Media Research. It was also the most popular entertainment program on television since the concluding episode of the first Survivor, watched by 51.7 million in August 2000. Of more than 30,000 people to respond to an America Online poll, 77 percent said rekindling Ross and Rachel's romance was the perfect ending for the show.
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