Randy Pausch
Pausch delivered his "Last Lecture", titled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams", at CMU on September 18, 2007. He gave an abridged version of his speech on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in October 2007. The talk was modeled after an ongoing series of lectures where top academics are asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical "final talk", with a topic such as "what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?" Before speaking, Pausch received a long standing ovation from a large crowd of over 400 colleagues and students. When he motioned them to sit down, saying, "Make me earn it", someone in the audience shouted back, "You did!"
Nice to Meet You, Walden Schmidt
With 28.74 million viewers in its original airing, the episode was the most watched in the history of the show. It scored a 10.7/25 rating/share in the 18-49 age group. At one point, the audience peaked at 31 million viewers with an 11.4/26 rating/share. Including DVR ratings, which added 4.09 million viewers, the episode was watched by a total of 32.83 million viewers with a 12.5 18-49 rating. In Canada, the show was watched by approximately 5 million viewers, with 6.7 million watching some of it. In Australia, the show was watched by an average of 2.3 million viewers in the five major capital cities, peaking at 2.6 million, which gave the show its highest ever ratings figure for an episode broadcast in Australia. It was also the most watched show on Australian television that night, beating third placed drama hit "Packed to the Rafters" by 655,000 viewers. In the United Kingdom, the episode aired on September 20 on digital channel Comedy Central and brought in a total of 803,000 viewers, the most watched programme in the channel's history.