Thursday’s TV Ratings: ‘Big Bang Theory’ Takes the (Wedding) Cake

The Thursday night TV ratings are in, and as many likely expected, the Big Bang Theory’s wedding episode took the cake.

According to TV Line, the shows season 11 finale, which featured the wedding of Amy and Sheldon, drew in 15 million viewers. This was the highest ratings for the show since early March.

The shows big numbers reportedly helped boost the series’ that followed as well, with Young Sheldon bringing in 12.2 million viewers, Mom’s one-hour finale nabbing and average of 8.5 million viewers, and S.W.A.T. closing out CBS’ epic night with 5.6 million viewers.

As previously mention, the Big Bang Theory finale was centered around the wedding of of Amy (Mayim Bialik) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons), with the show opening up the floodgates on celebrity guests, such as Kathy Bates and and magician Raymond Teller, from Penn & Teller.

The two appeared as Mr. and Mrs. Fowler, the parents of Amy. Bates and Teller made their debut during the May 10 season finale, alongside other previously announced guest stars such as actor Jerry O’Connell, who played Sheldon’s brother Georgie.

While Georgie has been played by 15-year-old Montana Jordan on the Big Bang Theory spin-off Young Sheldon, this was the first time the character has been seen on the original series. O’Connell is a celebrated actor who has starred in may TV series, such as Sliders, Crossing Jordan, and CBS‘ The Defenders.

The first appearances of The Fowlers and Georgie on The Big Bang Theory coincided with an appearance by Oscar-nominated actress Laurie Metcalf, reprising her role as Sheldon’s mother Mary.

John Ross Bowie and Brian Posehn, both recurring actors on the series, also made appearances in the finale. Bowie plays a character named Barry Kripke who does not get along well with the guys, least of all Sheldon, and Posehn plays Bert Kibbler, a geology professor at Caltech who had a crush on Amy. Interestingly, in the 10th season of the show, Raj moved into an apartment over Kibbler’s garage.

Wil Weaton, the former Star Trek star who plays a fictionalized version of himself in a recurring Big Bang Theory role, also turned up. Faux-Wheaton has quite the rivalry with Sheldon Cooper in the series, but was scheduled to officiate at the wedding.

By chance, however, that did not work out and none other than Luke Skywalker-himself, Mr. Mark Hamill, ended up doing it. Hamill was rumored to be in the finale for some time, but his role was kept under close wraps.