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Via NBC's Press Release
JAY LENO AND JIMMY FALLON DELIVER #1 FINISHES FOR THE FOURTH QUARTER OF 2012
'TONIGHT' AND 'LATE NIGHT' GENERATE BIGGER 18-49 AND OVERALL AUDIENCES THAN THE ABC AND CBS COMPETITION IN THEIR TIME PERIODS
JAY AND JIMMY TOP THEIR RESPECTIVE CBS RIVALS IN ALL KEY CATEGORIES: ADULTS, MEN AND WOMEN 18-34, 18-49 AND 25-54, PLUS TOTAL VIEWERS
FOR THE QUARTER, JAY INCREASES HIS YEAR-AGO MARGINS OVER 'Late Show' IN VIEWERS 18-34, 18-49 AND 25-54 AND JIMMY EXTENDS HIS LEADS OVER 'LATE Late Show' IN 18-49 AND 18-34
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – January 7, 2013 – NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" have delivered #1 finishes for the fourth quarter of 2012 versus the ABC and CBS time-period competition in viewers 18-49 and total viewers. Additionally, "Tonight" and "Late Night" generated bigger audiences than CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" respectively in all key ratings measures: adults, men and women 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54, plus total viewers.
For the fourth quarter of 2012, "Tonight" stretched its leads versus one year ago over "Late Show" in viewers 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54, while Jimmy Fallon increased his advantages over "Late Late Show" in viewers 18-49 and 18-34.
In viewers 18-49, "Tonight" established a margin over "Late Show" of 14 percent (1.048 million vs. 923,000), eliminating last year's "Late Show" advantage of 1 percent. Jay also generated a 25-54 advantage for the fourth quarter of 10 percent (1.333 million vs. 1.215 million) after trailing by 0.2 percent during the year-ago quarter, and stretched his 18-34 lead to 18 percent (347,000 vs. 293,000), up from last year’s 15 percent. Jay's total-viewer margin for the quarter was 13 percent (3.522 million vs. 3.109 million), equaling his advantage for the fourth quarter of 2012.
Jimmy Fallon generated an 18 percent lead over "Late Late Show" for the fourth quarter in viewers 18-49 (673,000 vs. 570,000), up from 13 percent at this point last season, and prevailed in viewers 18-34 by 45 percent (288,000 vs. 198,000), up from the year-ago 44 percent. In viewers 25-54, Jimmy matched his year-ago 8 percent margin (789,000 vs. 730,000 for the fourth quarter of 2012).
The quarter ended with the week of December 24-28, during which Jay out-delivered "Late Show" and ABC's combination in the hour of "Nightline" and "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in all key ratings categories. Note it was a holiday week of mostly encore telecasts with most Monday and Tuesday programming either preempted or excluded from weekly averages.
"Tonight" delivered a bigger 18-49 audience than "Late Show" for the ninth time in the last ten weeks, while Jimmy Fallon has attracted a bigger 18-49 audience than "Late Late Show" for 12 weeks in a row.
WEEKLY AVERAGES
(According to in-home viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research for the week of December 24-28. Ratings reflect “live plus same day” data from Nielsen Media Research unless otherwise noted. Fourth quarter and season-to-date figures are averages of “live plus seven day” data except for the two most recent weeks, which are “live plus same day.”)
ADULTS 18-49
11:35 p.m.-12:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Tonight,” 0.8 rating, 3 share (in encore telecasts)*
CBS “Late Show,” 0.7/3 (in encore telecasts)*
11:35 p.m.-12 midnight ET
ABC “Nightline,” 0.7/3*
12 midnight-1 a.m. ET
ABC “Kimmel,” 0.5/2 (in encore telecasts)*
12:35-1:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Late Night,” 0.5/2 (in encore telecasts)*
CBS “Late Late Show,” 0.4/2 (in encore telecasts)*
1:35-2:05 a.m. ET
NBC “Last Call,” 0.3/2 (in encore telecasts)*
TOTAL VIEWERS
11:35 p.m.-12:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Tonight,” 3.3 million viewers (in encore telecasts)*
CBS “Late Show,” 3.1 million viewers (in encore telecasts)*
11:35 p.m.-12 midnight ET
ABC “Nightline,” 3.6 million viewers*
12 midnight-1 a.m. ET
ABC “Kimmel,” 1.7 million viewers (in encore telecasts)*
12:35-1:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Late Night,” 1.5 million viewers (in encore telecasts)*
CBS “Late Late Show,” 1.5 million viewers (in encore telecasts)*
1:35-2:05 a.m. ET
NBC “Last Call,” 0.8 million viewers (in encore telecasts)*
* Monday and Tuesday telecasts were either preempted or excluded due to the Christmas holiday.
FOURTH QUARTER 2012/ SEASON TO DATE
ADULTS 18-49
11:35 p.m.-12:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Tonight,” 0.8 rating, 3 share
CBS “Late Show,” 0.7/3
11:35 p.m.-12 midnight ET
ABC “Nightline,” 0.9/3
12 midnight-1 a.m. ET
ABC “Kimmel,” 0.5/2
12:35-1:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Late Night,” 0.5/3
CBS “Late Late Show,” 0.5/3
1:35-2:05 a.m. ET
NBC “Last Call,” 0.3/2
TOTAL VIEWERS
11:35 p.m.-12:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Tonight,” 3.5 million viewers
CBS “Late Show,” 3.1 million viewers
11:35 p.m.-12 midnight ET
ABC “Nightline,” 3.9 million viewers
12 midnight-1 a.m. ET
ABC “Kimmel,” 1.9 million viewers
12:35-1:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Late Night,” 1.7 million viewers
CBS “Late Late Show,” 1.5 million viewers
1:35-2:05 a.m. ET
NBC “Last Call,” 0.9 million viewers
SELECTED CABLE RESULTS, WEEK OF DECEMBER 24-28
NATIONAL ADULT 18-49 RATING
Comedy Central, 11-11:30 p.m. ET, “The Daily Show,” preempted
Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m.-midnight ET, “The Colbert Report,” preempted
TBS, 11 p.m.-midnight, “Conan,” 0.5 (in encore telecasts)**
Adult Swim, 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET, 0.9
Adult Swim, 12:30-1:30 a.m. ET, 0.6
Each adult 18-49 rating point equals 1.27 million viewers
TOTAL VIEWERS
Comedy Central, 11-11:30 p.m. “The Daily Show,” preempted
Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m.-midnight ET, “The Colbert Report,” preempted
TBS, 11 p.m.-midnight, “Conan,” 1.0 million (in encore telecasts)**
Adult Swim, 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET, 2.2 million
Adult Swim, 12:30-1:30 a.m. ET, 1.4 million
Jay beat Dave pretty solidly in rerun week, 0.8 to 0.66.
PROGRAM AVERAGES TOTAL VIEWERS A25-54(000)/ Rtg A18-49(000)/
ABC ”Nightline” 3,617,000 1,227,000/ 1.0 915,000/ 0.7
CBS “Late Show” 3,071,000 1,182,000/ 1.0 851,000/ 0.7
NBC “Tonight Show” 3,251,000 1,296,000/ 1.1 1,023,000/ 0.8
Wow, great rating for Jay.
Wow..Great rating for ABC
Kimmel better be ready to get beaten by the King!
I look forward to the ABC PR team coming soon. They have a tendendacy to say a 25 minute show beats a one hour long one. Impressive that a Jay repeat beat a new Nightline? I didn’t expect. Unless ABC starts giving us half hour break downs, they will have to be more straight forward soon in their future press releases.
Yeah, in reality, Leno probably beats Nightline from 11:35-midnight just about every night. Can’t wait to see the ABC PR team in full-effect once Leno starts beating the full hour on a regular basis.
I think Leno will have his hands full trying to beat Kimmel in the demo. He’s lucky Kimmel only does 4 shows a week.
Leno is going to take a hit from Revolution going into hiatus.
Used to watch Leno and Late Late Show with Craig but now I only watch Leno and Jimmy Fallon; sometimes will watch Kimmel. Late Late Show just continues to do the same damn thing. I used to watch it every night and enjoy it so much. Now I can’t stand it.
They tried to change up the show a bit but it didn’t work. Just more of the same. Ugh.
This week will be fun for ratings fans!
Leno will have an interesting time from here on in. NBC was #1 in primetime this fall but that will no longer be the case so Leno is losing some lead in and has new competition from Kimmel.
I think Dave will stay at 0.7 to 0.6, Kimmel will be about 0.5 to 0.6 and Jay will drop to 0.7.
The Oprah interview was great with Dave. Neal (Mario), you should watch the whole piece rather than just going on and on about one part of a quote.
@Dan Great post. Information I received has Leno starting at 11:34. The interview with Oprah and Dave was great. Since CBS has the Super Bowl this year maybe Dave and Kimmel should do the commercial together. The question I have is if Dave is getting beat consistently why does CBS keep him?
Gary was right in the other thread that when you read it carefully there, technically, was no announcement that Leno’s contract was extended past the 2014 date. Some just might not have been aware of this latest extension from last summer, as it did seem to float under the radar.
And, yes, if you want to get a good idea of what makes Dave Letterman tick, watch this Oprah interview. This, together with the one he did with Regis a few months ago, provides an insight we didn’t have for 30 years.
“The question I have is if Dave is getting beat consistently why does CBS keep him?”
Joe, let me take a shot at a three part answer.
Part 1: “…and replace him with what?”
Part 2: A 2nd place show can make a lot of money, and apparently Letterman’s show has. More than Leno’s, according to some sources, thanks to a more affluent and urbanly-concentrated audience.
Part 3: I have a feeling they do want to replace him.
Gary bare in mind you say Jay is going to take a hit with less NBC 10PM, why do you assume ABC 10PM is doing better? Castle skews old, Private Practice has been doing horrid, Nashville is loosing to Chicago Fire now?
While watching NBC just now I saw a late night commercial and they just said “America’s Late night leader”. Been ages since I’ve seen that shown.
“Gary bare in mind you say Jay is going to take a hit with less NBC 10PM, why do you assume ABC 10PM is doing better?”
I don’t assume ABC is doing better at 10. Independent of anything going on at any other network, unless Deception is huge, Jay will take a hit from Revolution going on hiatus.
Having said that, quick note to Dan’s comment about NBC having been #1 in prime time in the fall, that was almost entirely due to Sunday Night Football which has no impact on Leno. That’s the tragedy of NBC’s football deal: so expensive, yet it doesn’t lead into anything.
@Gary, Replace Dave with what? To me it would seem like 2 choices. 1. Craig or John Stewart since Comedy Central is owned by VIACOM or CBS. Sounds crazy but anything is possible since Dave only is signed for another year or 2.
Certainly possible, Joe. I’m thinking Stewart would balk. 50 is a pretty advanced age to turn your life upside down like that.
Jay will beat Kimmel … I have no doubt!
Why do all Leno fans end their statements with exclamation points?
I know this is a late night tv board but very sad news today in the world of television – Huell Howser, the host of California’s Gold on PBS, has passed away.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/07/showbiz/california-howser-obit/index.html
@Lazlo, I completely agree. I started watching Craig everyday in the summer of 11 and loved it, but ever since last June, it’s been on a downward slide. I, and many people on IMDB, put the blame mostly on Geoff. Anyway, I’ll give him one more month, and if nothing changes, I’m done with watching every night. I no longer blame people for the ratings.