This is a trend we’ve seen for awhile. I’d really like to know what makes people turn off half way through (I mean, not that it matters anymore)
I heard that its apparently common for some 8pm shows to be inflated from their local lead-ins. Not everybody watching the local lead-in changes the channel right away. Another thing I heard is that it could be a side effect of Same Day delayed viewers. Some may only watch half of the episode, and save the rest for later. Or perhaps they start watching, but they don’t finish watching until after the Same Day viewing window (3am EST/12am PST) has ended, so only part of their viewing was counted. All of these could potentially explain the half hour drops, as we tend to recover at the top of the hour the week after as well.