We study the K\"ahler-Ricci flow on compact K\"ahler manifolds whose
canonical bundle is big. We show that the normalized K\"ahler-Ricci flow has
long time existence in the viscosity sense, is continuous in a Zariski open
set, and converges to the unique singular K\"ahler-Einstein metric in the
canonical class. The key ingredient is a viscosity theory for degenerate
complex Monge-Amp\`ere flows in big classes that we develop, extending and
refining the approach of Eyssidieux-Guedj-Zeriahi.Comment: Final version, to appear in IMR