Shield Scores

The Shield season five finale earned 2.0 million adults 18-49 Tuesday night (March 21), tying with MTV’s Real World for the most viewed show in the demo that night and nearly tripling the network’s first quarter average in the demo. The episode, which ran from 10 p.m. to 11:35 p.m., brought in 3.2 million total viewers.

The Shield's 11-episode fifth season saw audience losses from last year, dropping 10% in the demo to an average 2.0 million viewers and 13% in total viewers to an average 2.8 million. It was up in both categories over season three, though.

The Shield will be back with a sixth season in early 2007. Production on 10 new episodes starts April 10and is slated to run through August. FX will decide later this spring whether to go ahead with a seventh season after that. The season-five finale will run again March 26 at 10 p.m. ET.