M*A*S*H's series finale is now, officially 40 years old

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https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/th...ce-100-million

More than 100 million Americans tuned in to bid "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen" to the doctors, nurses and staff of the fictional 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital on this day in history, Feb. 28, 1983.

The final episode of the hit CBS sitcom "M*A*S*H" remained the most-watched television program in American history for 27 years.

It was finally surpassed by Super Bowl XLIV (the Saints over the Colts) in February 2010.

Its finale is still the most watched scripted TV show in American history, 40 years later.

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Why MASH's Wild Finale Record Will Never Be Beaten

The M*A*S*H series finale holds an impressive viewership record, and because of the rise of streaming, it will most likely never be beaten.

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There was a bounty on the M*A*S*H finale script

Place your bets on how high the bidding went.

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43 Years Later, No TV Finale Has Matched This Show’s Colossal 106M Viewers

One goodbye echoed louder than anything before or since.

By Amanda M. Castro
Published Apr 10, 2026, 1:28 PM EDT

There’s no way to really recreate what happened the night M*A*S*H ended. You can compare M*A*S*H’s finale to the hype surrounding modern-day show endings. No matter how much excitement and anticipation there was for shows like Game of Thrones, it wasn’t anywhere near the type of impact M*A*S*H had on its viewers.

On February 28th, 1983, over 100 million viewers watched M*A*S*H’s series finale. That’s not just a large number (more than the total population of Italy); it’s a cultural event. Over 60% of U.S. households that had a television were tuned into to one channel, one show, at one time, Ebsco reported. There may have been several other television options available to flip to, but there was no point in doing so. Everything else on TV was basically static that night. And the crazy part of this is that if we remove the Super Bowl from that viewership record, the M*A*S*H series finale will still occupy the top position for most watched television show in history and will continue to do so for years to come as it remains untouched, like a record that more than 30 years later, nobody is even trying to beat.