SIMI VALLEY, CALIFORNIA (The Borowitz Report)—American democracy, a long-running institution whose popularity endured for over two hundred years, drew millions of viewers to its final episode Wednesday night.

While the official ratings for democracy’s finale will not be available until Thursday, initial reports indicated that a larger than expected number tuned in to witness the last moments of the nation’s system of government.

Network executives had warned that the final episode was not for the squeamish, but many viewers were still shocked by how dark and apocalyptic it turned out to be.

One reviewer, calling the finale a “shattering conclusion,” wrote, “For casual fans of American democracy who weren’t paying much attention to it lately, what they saw in Wednesday’s episode must have come as a shock: a cast of characters who were thoroughly unlikable, unappealing, and, in the end, totally unredeemed.”

Still, based on the strong ratings for Wednesday’s episode, network executives decided to “supersize” democracy's death throes by scheduling a dozen additional episodes between now and November, 2016.

In the words of one executive, “American democracy is not as popular as it once was, but a lot of people still want to see how it ends.”