Notable modern episodes include the Russian heat wave of 2010 (which covered 1,036,000 square km [400,000 square miles] and killed 55,000 people), the European heat wave of 2003 (in which more than 30,000 people died), the U.S. heat wave and drought of 1988 (which killed more than 4,000 people), and the Indian heat wave of 2015 (which killed more than 2,500 people).
A new episode of "Modern Family" led the way, with 12.6 million total viewers, followed by "The Middle," at 9.1 million, according to Nielsen estimates.
ABC ranked second, benefiting from new episodes of "Modern Family" at 9 (10.5 million) and "The Middle" at 8 (8.2 million).
So far this season, new episodes of "Modern Family" have grown from a first-day average of 7.1 million viewers in that age group to 10.2 million, counting seven days' worth of added viewing — a gain of 3.1 million each week, according to Nielsen Research.
But to return once again to that question of toilets: the most famous modern art episode involving a toilet found Marcel Duchamp, the French expatriate artist, anonymously submitting a urinal to a 1917 open-call exhibition in New York.
Want to see "that one Modern Family episode with Edward Norton"?
It felt like a modern day episode of Mad Men, with a room full of male ad execs discussing how to sell a pair of panty hose.
Who knows what the psychology is? Have you seen that "Modern Family" episode in which Claire can't figure how to use the remote and Phil bets her that he can teach Haley (their not so sharp daughter) in a matter of minutes?
Three of the four most-watched TV episodes on Hulu in February were "Modern Family" episodes.
"Now they buy us on Wednesday," Mr. Lee said, the day that new "Modern Family" episodes are broadcast, "and they know they are going to get Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
