• by Wayne Friedman , April 12, 2011

The finale of syndicated series "The Oprah Winfrey Show" is poised to pull in $1 million for a 30-second commercial -- a level for a broadcast series finale not seen since CBS' "Everybody Loves Raymond" grabbed an average $1.2 million six years ago.

But more importantly, at this price level -- and some expect 10 million live-program viewers on May 25 -- the last "Oprah Winfrey" show will rival the high price for two recent series endings: ABC's "Lost" and Fox's "24," in terms of CPMs.

According to Horizon Media, by way of data from Nielsen Media Research and Kantar Media, the last episode -- against an estimated 10 million viewers -- would price out to $100.00 CPM for household viewers.

Fox's "24" -- at $650,000 for a 30-second commercial and 6 million viewers -- pulled in $107.99 CPM, the highest finale broadcast series ending price on record. "Lost" was next -- costing $900,000 for a 30-second commercial and pulling in an audience of 8.6 million viewers, giving TV advertisers a $103.88 CPM.

Some of the higher-priced activity for "Lost," "24" and "Oprah" has been the result of continued broadcast price inflation -- this against broadcast rating erosion -- according to analysts.

For a broadcast TV series, the highest overall unit price for a 30-second advertising message came with NBC's "Friends" in May 2004 at $2 million. That show pulled in 32.3 million viewers. The resulting CPM was $61.91. In second place was the "Seinfeld" finale in May 1998 at $1.4 million per 30-second commercial. With 40.5 million viewers, the resulting CPM was at a relatively cheaper $35.16.

By way of comparison, the average household viewer CPM is around $15 to $20 for a broadcast network, with the average 18-49 CPM around $32 to $35.

Looking at just the 18-49 demo, "24" with only 3.7 million 18-49 viewers was the most costly for advertisers in recent years, at a $177.26 CPM. "Lost" was at $117.31 CPM for its 18-49 audience of 7.6 million. If "Oprah" pulls in 6 million viewers 18-49, she'll be giving advertisers a pricey $166.66 CPM.