Late Night Ratings Watch: Kimmel to #2 in Total, Fallon Holds Steady
Last week, Jimmy Kimmel took his show on the road to the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. And in the process, he overtook the Late Show with David Letterman in total viewer ratings. While Kimmel has consistently beat Letterman in the key 18-49 demo since moving to 11:35pm, he has rarely been able to break out of third place in total viewers. However, Kimmel’s gains were not enough to catch The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, which held steady in both the demo and total viewers last week to stay at #1 in both categories.
After weeks of consecutive viewer losses following his Tonight Show debut, Jimmy Fallon appeared to level off last week, retaining 94% of his total viewers with 4.260M (down from 4.537M) and 99% of his demo viewers 1.32 rating (down from 1.34).
One other area in which Kimmel made gains was online. For the first week since he launched, Fallon failed to put out a runaway viral hit on YouTube, meaning Kimmel had the most-watched late night video of the week with his SXSW edition of “Lie Witness News.”
Here’s the breakdown for the week of March 10-14, 2014, according to Nielsen’s “live plus same day” data:
Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC): 4.260M total viewers, 1.32 rating in 18-49 demo
Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC): 2.830M total viewers, 0.76 rating in 18-49 demo
Late Show with David Letterman (CBS): 2.778M total viewers, 0.55 rating in 18-49 demo
And, since today’s late night viewers are not only watching on TV, here’s a look at the most popular video for each of the three shows last week on YouTube (as of Thursday, March 20th):
Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC): Lie Witness News – SXSW Edition, 1,289,198 views
Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC): “Tonight Show Celebrity Photobomb” with Jimmy Fallon & Jon Hamm, 1,162,957
Late Show with David Letterman (CBS): David Letterman – Bill O’Reilly on Beyonce, 59,935 views
In the 12:35pm slot, Late Night with Seth Meyers also managed to retain most of its audience from the week prior, holding on the 93% of his total viewers (1.936M down from 2.073M) and 97% of his demo viewers (0.69 rating vs. 0.71). That kept him ahead of David Letterman in the demo but behind Fallon and Kimmel. CBS’ Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson was down slightly to 1.271M total viewers and a 0.34 in the demo.
Kimmel may still have a ways to go to catch up with Fallon, but overtaking Letterman in total viewers was no small feat. With Fallon untouchable for the moment, the late night ratings game is looking more and more like a battle for second place.
Previously: Late Night Ratings Watch: Fallon Down, But Still #1 as Kimmel’s Audience Grows
[photos via ABC/NBC]
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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
