In Steve Carell’s last episode of NBC’s comedy series “The Office”, ratings rose to 4.1 as opposed to its series average of 3.2. As stated in The Hollywood Reporter, this extended  episode pulled in 5.2 million viewers for NBC between 9 – 10 pm on April 28, 2011, putting the network in the lead with CBS (who had 10.9 million viewers) — a sight not often seen. What NBC and the makers of The Office really did in this scenario was to rake in all the possible advantages that could be made from the departure of Carell. As the

Touching moments like this one are hard to find in the series. In Carell's final episode, they were plenty.

show’s central and often most loved character, ratings, viewers, and popularity were expected to drop in following seasons in his absence. So, with the extension of the episode from 30 minutes to an entire hour, and the sentimental tone that the episode carried, the producers ensured that the episode would attract a wider market (ie. viewers) and increase ratings as much as possible — essentially, milk out as much as they could from Michael Scott’s farewell.

Unfortunately, as explained in this video, in the absence of Steve Carell, the show is beginning to suffer. It’s a good thing NBC took advantage of his departure as much as possible.