Nearly 4 million people tuned into CBS's Face the Nation to watch Bob Schieffer say goodbye.

Nielsen estimates that the first half-hour of the public affairs program averaged 3.95 million viewers, or roughly 50% more than the comparable week a year ago. It also was up about 40% in the key news demo of adults 25-54 (to about 600,000 viewers).

For the 2014-15 television season, the Schieffer-hosted "Face the Nation" celebrated its largest audience since the 1987 advent of Nielsen's people meters (3.42 million), up 5% from last year. By comparison, ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" averaged 2.85 million viewers, and NBC's "Meet the Press" averaged 2.83 million. ("Face the Nation" benefits in comparisons to the other networks' shows because only its first half-hour is included in averages; its two half-hours air back-to-back in just about 76% of the country.)

In the key news demo of adults 25-54, "Face the Nation" (0.8 rating for its first half-hour) finished ahead of "This Week" and "Meet the Press" (both at 0.7 for their hours).

John Dickerson, the current political director for CBS News, will be taking over moderator duties at "Face the Nation" in June.

H/T Boston Herald