“Lucy Goes to the Hospital” earned a Nielsen rating of 71.7.
The I Love Lucy episode first aired on January 19, 1953, and became a landmark television broadcast. Its 71.7 rating meant that 71.7 percent of American households with television sets were tuned in. The audience was estimated at about 44 million viewers, an extraordinary figure for early-1950s television.
The episode’s importance also came from its story: Lucy gives birth to Little Ricky, mirroring Lucille Ball’s real-life pregnancy and the birth of her son, Desi Arnaz Jr. The production turned a major fictional event into a national television occasion, with viewers closely following the arrival of the Ricardos’ child.
The nearby figures in this question are easy to confuse. The 82.6 figure belongs to Elvis Presley’s first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, while 67.3 was the overall rating for I Love Lucy’s 1952 season. Thus, 71.7 identifies the single episode, not the show’s season average or another program’s rating.