To see past weeks' Late Night TV ratings information click here.
Via NBC's Press Release
JAY LENO AND JIMMY FALLON SCORE #1 FINISHES IN 18-49 VIEWERS AND TOTAL VIEWERS FOR THE WEEK OF FEB. 11-15
'TONIGHT' HAS OUT-DELIVERED ‘Late Show’ FOR 13 WEEKS IN A ROW IN 18-49 VIEWERS AND TOPPED ‘KIMMEL’ FOR FIVE OF SIX WEEKS
‘LATE NIGHT’ HAS BEATEN ‘LATE Late Show’ IN 18-49 VIEWERS FOR 19 WEEKS IN A ROW AND TOPPED ‘Nightline’ HEAD-TO-HEAD FOR SIX OF SIX WEEKS
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – February 22, 2013 – NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” has finished #1 in viewers 18-49 and total viewers versus its ABC and CBS time-slot competition for the week of February 11-15, with Jay generating bigger audiences than CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman" in every key ratings category.
Jay has now delivered bigger 18-49 audiences than "Late Show" for the last 13 weeks in a row and topped "Kimmel" for five of their six head-to-head weeks. In total viewers, Jay has out-delivered "Late Show" for 17 weeks in a row and "Kimmel" for six of six weeks.
At 12:35 a.m. ET last week, "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" ranked #1 versus the ABC and CBS competition in 18-49 viewers, total viewers and virtually all other key ratings categories. “Late Night” beat ABC's "Nightline" for the week in their head-to-head half-hour in every key measure: adults, men and women 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54, plus total viewers. Jimmy also delivered bigger audiences than CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" in all those categories except men 25-54, where the two shows tied.
Jimmy Fallon has now generated bigger 18-49 audiences than "Late Late Show" for the last 19 weeks in a row and prevailed in total viewers for 16 of the last 17 weeks. Versus "Nightline" in their head-to-head half-hour, Jimmy has out-delivered the ABC series for six weeks in a row in viewers 18-49 and three weeks in a row in total viewers.
WEEKLY AVERAGES
(According to in-home viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research for the week of February 11-15. Ratings reflect “live plus same day” data from Nielsen Media Research unless otherwise noted. 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
CBS “Late Show,” 0.7/3
ABC “Kimmel,” 0.7/3*
12:35-1:05 a.m. ET
ABC “Nightline,” 0.4/2
12:35-1:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Late Night,” 0.5/3
CBS “Late Late Show,” 0.4/2
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,” 3.2 million viewers
ABC “Kimmel,” 2.5 million viewers*
12:35-1:05 a.m. ET
ABC “Nightline,” 1.5 million viewers
12:35-1:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Late Night,” 1.6 million viewers
CBS “Late Late Show,” 1.5 million viewers
1:35-2:05 a.m. ET
NBC “Last Call,” 0.9 million viewers
* Tuesday’s “Kimmel” is excluded from these averages.
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
ABC “Kimmel,” 0.8/3**
12:35-1:05 a.m. ET
ABC “Nightline,” 0.4/2**
12:35-1:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Late Night,” 0.5/3
CBS “Late Late Show,” 0.4/2
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,” 3.6 million viewers
CBS “Late Show,” 3.1 million viewers
ABC “Kimmel,” 2.8 million viewers**
12:35-1:05 a.m. ET
ABC “Nightline,” 1.7 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
** Since January 8.
SELECTED CABLE RESULTS, WEEK OF FEBRUARY 11-15
NATIONAL ADULT 18-49 RATING
Comedy Central, 11-11:30 p.m. ET, “The Daily Show,” 0.7
Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m.-midnight ET, “The Colbert Report,” 0.7
TBS, 11 p.m.-midnight, “Conan,” 0.4
Adult Swim, 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET, 1.1
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,” 1.7 million
Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m.-midnight ET, “The Colbert Report,” 1.4 million
TBS, 11 p.m.-midnight, “Conan,” 0.8 million
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
And everyone thought I was crazy when I said Cougar Town will do well on TBS. They got a 1.1 last night and have been doing so for quite awhile now. This is solid proof it is doing well. Too bad CONAN can’t do anything more than a 0.4 with this and Big Bang Theory as lead-ins.
Two important facts from ABC’s press release…
“Jimmy Kimmel Live was the week’s #1 broadcast talk show in late-night among Adults 18-34, beating NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno by 4% and CBS’ The Late Show with David Letterman by 25%.”
“ABC’s JKL ran in a near tie with NBC’s The Tonight Show among Adults 18-49, with just 76,000 young adult viewers separating the two programs during the week.”
So the question advertisers must ask themselves, do they want more younger, 18-35 viewers or more 18-49 viewers.
‘Arsenio Hall Show’ Taps Executive Producer Neal Kendall
“Kendall has spent the past 10 years as executive producer of Tavis Smiley’s PBS talk show.
“Kendall’s credits include NBC’s Later, CBS’ The Late Late Show With Tom Snyder and CNN’s Larry King Live. He also has produced talk shows with Carrie Fisher for Oxygen Media, with Jesse Ventura for MSNBC and with Kevin Nealon for TNN/Spike.”
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/arsenio-hall-show-taps-executive-423195
“So the question advertisers must ask themselves, do they want more younger, 18-35 viewers or more 18-49 viewers.”
Brad, it might not be the question because the 18-34 totals might be extremely negligible. Theoretically, Kimmel can beat Leno by 4% in 18-34 with just 25 viewers in that demo.
Presumably Dave took a hit last week from the State of the Union. Dave doesn’t usually have to deal with sub-1.0 lead-ins during sweeps. So in the past 2 weeks perhaps Jay got saved by a storm, then a speech. Doesn’t appear he’ll get any kind of assist this week. Looking forward to JC’s call.
Why is JKL’s Tuesday show not counted but Dave’s and Jay’s are? Did he start later than the others?
Excluding Tuesday almost certainly helped JKL, seeing as he probably got crushed that night (he only did a 1.8 in the metered households).
As far as this week goes, JKL in probably in third, with Dave actually giving Jay a run (although I expect Jay to pull it out with tonight’s show seeing as Friday is his best night competitively).
“Why is JKL’s Tuesday show not counted but Dave’s and Jay’s are? Did he start later than the others?”
I assume that’s right, jc. But I bet it didn’t start much later and agree it helped his number considerably. Even if it had started on time, Kimmel- like Dave- does not usually have to deal with lead-ins that start with a decimal point.
ABC has given us more numbers to look at. Dave’s demo was 0.68, which is really rough for sweeps with new H5-0, CSI, Blue Bloods, and whatever it is they do on Thursdays. Pulled Ferguson back down to .39.
1.1 is a strong week for Adult Swim.
I’m sure there was plenty of rounding involved, but still: is this the first time Colbert has tied Daily Show?
Thursday Feb 21 (56 metered markets)
Elementary 7.3/13
SVU 2.6/5
Scandel 5.8/10
Letterman 3.3/8 2.6/7
Leno 3.2/8 2.1/6
Kimmel 3.0/7 2.0/6
Nightline 1.5/5
Ferguson 1.8/6 1.2/5
Fallon 1.5/5 1.3/5
Come September, I think ABC will move “Nightline” back to 11:30 P.M. ET/PT and “Kimmel” to 12 Midnight ET/PT (unless he decides to leave the network over being pushed back).
NBC finished fifth in February sweeps. Way to go NBC!
If Leno’s and Letterman’s current NBC and CBS Network lead-in support, were reversed, what kind of ratings swing would there be?
“If Leno’s and Letterman’s current NBC and CBS Network lead-in support, were reversed, what kind of ratings swing would there be?”
I think Jay would do .9 to 1.0, Dave 0.5 to .6. In other words, Dave would virtually get lapped.
GAR’s numbers are telling an interesting story about the 2nd half hour. Last night Dave’s 2nd half hour destroyed the field. At least in total viewers, Leno might not be as good of a lead-in for Fallon as the full-hour rating makes it look.
Maybe Leno’s booking situation is coming home to roost. That 2nd half hour rout by Letterman featured Johnny Depp vs. a model I have never heard of.
I disagree that Jay would beat Dave by nearly that much if their lead-ins were reversed. It’s clear in looking at the ratings that lead-ins mean a lot less than they used to.
On the other hand, it’s hard to understand why there is as much correlation as there is, considering the 35 minutes of news between the shows. Do that many people actually just watch the news on the same channel on which they just viewed the 10:00 program? Do they then just watch the same 11:35 comedy show? Don’t these people have remote controls??
Personally, when I watch the news, it’s always the NBC affiliate, regardless of what I was watching previously. Then I switch to CBS to watch Letterman. I rarely watch any 10:00 (9:00 here, CDT) show live, but can’t imagine watching the news on the same channel just because it was too hard to press a few buttons.
“I disagree that Jay would beat Dave by nearly that much if their lead-ins were reversed.”
The amount I’ve suggested is really not that big of a swing. It’s basically giving slightly more than a tenth of a point to Jay, and taking the same away from Dave.
“It’s clear in looking at the ratings that lead-ins mean a lot less than they used to.”
I’m not sure how you arrive at that conclusion. Conan’s ratings are literally 60 to 100 percent higher when Big Bang is in front of him.
“Do that many people actually just watch the news on the same channel on which they just viewed the 10:00 program? Do they then just watch the same 11:35 comedy show?”
Even if 90% of viewers don’t do that, the difference between a 1.0 lead-in and a 2.5 lead-in will significantly affect the late night results.
Jay keeps showing week after week he’s da KING!
In two months, Kimmel will fall to a weekly average of 0.6
Jay is holding on by the smallest of fingernails and may soon slip under Letterman.
Jay is da has-been!
jcfreder: As far as this week goes, JKL in probably in third, with Dave actually giving Jay a run (although I expect Jay to pull it out with tonight’s show seeing as Friday is his best night competitively).
My guess is that Jay being taped same-day versus Dave being taped on thursday and Jimmy being a recap, could be why Friday is Jay’s best night.
More people being up late at night since Friday is the end of the work week is also a factor in more eyeballs watching TV late night. Just like Saturday Night Live a lot of folks watch that. IF that was during the week, SNL would put up worse numbers.
All good explanations for something that may not be happening, because Jay hasn’t done all that well the last couple of Fridays. Looking forward to JC’s updated call with the Friday overnights now available.
Really, if Rock Center is your lead-in, it’s not going to matter how much you’re *supposed* to dominate the night. It’s not likely to happen.