However, friends, family and colleagues of the cast and crew served as extras throughout the episode. Reception Promotion, ratings and awards NBC heavily promoted the series finale, which was preceded by weeks of hype. Viewing parties were organized by local NBC affiliates around the United States, including an event at Universal CityWalk featuring a special broadcast of the finale on an outdoor Astrovision screen. It was shown in New York City, where over 3,000 people watched it on big screens in parks. The finale was the subject of two episodes of Dateline NBC, one of which ran for two hours. Prior to the airing of the episode, a one-hour retrospective of clips from previous episodes was shown. Following the finale, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was filmed on the set of the Friends' Central Perk café, which featured the series' cast as guests. The advertising rates for the finale averaged $2 million for 30 seconds of commercial time. This currently remains as the largest advertising rate ever for a sitcom, breaking the previous record held by the Seinfeld finale at $1.7 million. The finale was watched by 52.5 million American viewers making it the most watched entertainment telecast in six years, and the most watched episode of the decade 2000s on U.S. television. The Friends finale was the fourth most watched overall series finale in U.S. television history, behind the finales of M*A*S*H, Cheers and Seinfeld, which were watched by 105.9, 84.4 and 76.3 million viewers, respectively. The episode was also the second most watched episode of Friends, behind The One After the Superbowl which attracted 52.92 million viewers. The retrospective episode was watched by just under 36 million viewers, and the finale was the second most-watched television show of the year, behind only Super Bowl XXXVIII. The episode was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards at the 56th Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Multi-Camera Sound Mixing for a Series or Special and Outstanding Multi-Camera Picture Editing for a Series, but lost to the final season of Frasier in both categories. Critical reviews Robert Bianco of USA Today described the finale as entertaining and satisfying, and praised it for deftly mixing emotion and humor while showcasing each of the stars. Sarah Rodman of the Boston Herald praised Aniston and Schwimmer for their acting, but felt that their characters' reunion "felt a bit too neat, even if it was what