‘Sons of Anarchy’ season 5: 90-minute episode draws huge audience

Even when “Sons of Anarchy” goes beyond its typical run time, the show still manages to be a ratings smash for FX. How much so? Let’s just say that, once again, it was the highest-rated scripted show on Tuesday night at 10:00 Eastern by a pretty large number.

Sometimes when we talk about “The Walking Dead” or this show in comparison to broadcast programming, we like to play a little bit of compare and contrast. With this in mind, consider the following: the 2.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic the show drew was over twice that of “Private Practice” over on ABC, and was nearly a full point ahead of “Vegas” on CBS. The show did lag behind the latter with 4.6 million viewers, but this is pretty traditional for cable shows. Plus, it is the demo ratings that advertisers really care about more than anything else.

“Sons of Anarchy” has over the course of five seasons become FX’s premiere drama series, and it has to be worth celebrating that the show is still growing, and there are two seasons still left in the tank after this one. With there only being three episodes left this season, we have a feeling that the show is only going to continue to grow leading up to the big payoff between Jax, Damon Pope, and Clay.

In case you were curious, “Tosh.0” came in second place when it comes to regular-scheduled programming on the night with a 1.3 rating, and it was followed by several reruns of “The Big Bang Theory” on TBS (which is somehow a massive beast in syndication night after night).

Do you predict an even greater ratings surge leading up to the finale?