There is a downside to producing a show of such high quality as HBO’s “The Sopranos,” and that is expectations. When the show doesn’t live up to viewers’ expectations, which have risen to ridiculously high levels over the past seven years, those viewers complain.

And they’ve been doing a lot of complaining about “Sopranos” this season, culminating in an almost universal panning of Sunday’s finale episode. No one got whacked, no one got thrown out of the house, and no one had a major epiphany, all things that drove past finales to big numbers.

Instead the first half of the show’s sixth and final season ended quietly, with its least-watched finale since season one. Just 8.9 million viewers tuned in, down 19 percent from the 10.98 million who watched season five’s finale two years ago.

The show also finished with its worst season average since season three, drawing 8.64 million. That’s 12 percent lower than last season’s average 9.8 million.

HBO points out that Nielsen changed the way it measured the pay cable network between seasons four and five. Before multiple airings of the show were included in the show’s average, such as repeats on HBO2, and now Nielsen measures only the first-run episodes.

Even still, the show has endured a marked decline. Perhaps part of the falloff can be attributed to more competition on the night. Two years ago, ABC did not have “Desperate Housewives” in the same 9 p.m. timeslot.

But the season premiere of “Sopranos” drew 800,000 more viewers than the finale, which aired after “Housewives” had gone off the air. And season five ended opposite an NBA Finals game yet still drew nearly 11 million. Clearly a “Sopranos” backlash has been brewing.

Critics and viewers have been very vocal about their disappointment with this season, during which Tony Soprano meandered through a dream-filled coma and one mobster came out of the closet.

Perhaps the show’s long layoff deserves part of the blame. Fans watched old episodes over and over during that time, and surely built up unrealistic expectations for the show that could not possibly be met.

“As HBO's top drama ends its sixth season, it seems obvious the show's writers fell into a funk,” writes Mark A. Perigard of the Boston Herald. “[The finale] will have to be one heckuva caper to redeem the last three months.”

A poll posted on TVGuide.com Monday found that more than three-quarters of respondents thought the “Sopranos” season finale was disappointing. And chat boards are still abuzz with angry viewers more than 48 hours later.

“I expected something, anything but all l saw was nothing. This was one of the worst episodes of this season,” writes a fan on the TV.com “Sopranos” forum. “As far as the last 8 episodes, I couldn't care less if they started in 08. What a waste of a great show.”

“Sopranos’” final eight episodes begin airing next spring.

Meanwhile, in other cable ratings for the week ended June 4:
 
Top five networks in primetime (18-49s): TNT, ESPN, USA, Comedy Central, TBS
 
Top five networks in primetime (total viewers): TNT, ESPN, USA, Comedy Central, Cartoon Network
 
Top movie (18-49s): TNT’s “Exit Wounds” (Sunday, 6 p.m.) 1.34 million
 
Top sporting event (total viewers): ESPN’s NBA Playoffs: Miami Heat at Detroit Pistons (Wednesday, 8 p.m.) 6.6 million
 
Shows making the top 10 among 18-34s, 18-49s and 25-54s: ESPN’s NBA Playoffs: Miami Heat at Detroit Pistons (Wednesday, 8 p.m.); ESPN’s NBA Playoffs: Detroit Pistons at Miami Heat (Friday, 8:09 p.m.); TNT’s NBA Playoffs: Dallas Mavericks at Phoenix Suns (Saturday 8:34 p.m.); TNT’s NBA Playoffs: Dallas Mavericks at Phoenix Suns (Tuesday 9:02 p.m.); TNT’s NBA Playoffs: Phoenix Suns at Dallas Mavericks (Thursday 8:49 p.m.); USA’s “WWE Entertainment” (Monday 10 p.m.); Comedy Central’s “Blue Collar Comedy Tour 3” (Sunday 8 p.m.)
 
Show on the rise: “Blue Collar Comedy Tour 3,” Comedy Central, Sunday 8 p.m. Could “The Sopranos’” white-collar criminals have lost viewers to this blue-collar bunch? The special was the eighth-most-watched show ever to air on Comedy Central, averaging 5.31 million total viewers Sunday night.
 
Show on the decline: “Fairly Odd Parents,” Nickelodeon, Saturday 10 a.m. After a major ratings pump from the “FOP” movie two weeks ago, the show returned back to more normalized viewing levels, albeit a still-impressive 2.87 million households for last week’s highest-rated episode, but 500,000 fewer than the week before.