'How I Met Your Mother': Historic ratings, and a defense

“How I Met Your Mother” fans may be divided on the show’s series finale, but they did help the comedy reach one final milestone.

'How I Met Your Mother' finale ends with one last twist

With its last episode on Monday night, the CBS series concluded its nine-season run with 12.9 million viewers watching. That audience also had a 5.3 rating in the advertiser-happy demographic of adults 18-49.

That means the controversial installment is “How I Met Your Mother’s” most-watched and highest-rated episode ever. The hour-long closer even surpassed NBC’s popular singing competition “The Voice.”

That good news may not be enough of a salve for fans disappointed by the direction creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas decided to take the series by its end. Over the past nine years, the duo have unfurled a story focused on one man’s winding journey to find out the love of his life – only to drop a hammer of a twist in the show’s final moments.

The reaction has been so vocal that Thomas has responded directly to viewers, standing by the creative team’s decision to give “How I Met Your Mother” such an ending.

"The fact that we have been a TV sitcom that has received this much passion from fans, for 9 years (not just tonight) - thank you," Thomas tweeted amid the storm of responses he and Bays received Monday night. "We wrote a comedy with dramatic elements till the very end. ... We did a finale about life's twists and turns and that is not always what happens...but THANKS! Seriously – no matter what you thought of tonight, THANK YOU...you were with us. We love you."