FX’s ‘Sons of Anarchy’ goes out on a ratings high

The seventh and final season of FX’s “Sons of Anarchy” went out in typically violent fashion last week with a body count to rival “Game of Thrones.” But with the blood also came the ratings. The final season of the tough-guy biker drama was the highest rated in FX’s 20-year history.

The final episode of “SOA” grabbed 9.26 million total viewers in live +3 Nielsen ratings, which was the highest rated of the show’s 92 episodes.

But the high ratings didn’t just stop at the typically highly watched final episode. According to FX, the show’s final season was the highest rated season of TV in the channel’s history, with an average of 7.54 million viewers for each of the season’s 13 episodes. But don’t look at “SOA” toppling any old, beloved shows. The previous record-holder was “Sons of Anarchy’s” sixth season.

The high finale ratings also buoyed the live post-show “Anarchy Afterward,” which grabbed 4.06 million viewers, making it the second ranked show in all of cable for the night after the actual “SOA” finale episode.

In the end, it appears creator Kurt Sutter’s fears of fan spoilers were unfounded, after a book containing information about the highly anticipated series finale was released just days before the episode was set to air.

In a typically profane message to his fans on Twitter, Sutter apologized for the screw-up, but promised that the ending of his story played much better than it read on the page.

Much like AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” “Sons of Anarchy” went out on top of its ratings climb. Is it too late for FX to greenlight “Better Call Tig?”

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