Letterman Dominates Fallon in Total Viewers for Second to Last Full Week

In a week that began with President Barack Obama’s eighth and final appearance on the Late Show and ended with Tina Fey taking off her dress, David Letterman came out way ahead in the late night total viewer ratings with 3.816 million, clocking his first weekly win over The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, which had 3.086 million. Jimmy Kimmel Live came in third with 2.229 million total viewers.

Letterman’s second to last full week of shows before he retires next Wednesday, May 20, was the Late Show’s most-watched week since February 2011. However, he still came in second place in the coveted 18-49 demo, trailing Jimmy Fallon 0.64 to 0.93. Again, Jimmy Kimmel was third with 0.54.

The Letterman bump also helped The Late Late Show with James Corden to its best weekly ratings since it premiered with 1.434 million total viewers, coming out ahead of Late Night with Seth Meyers’ 1.200 million.

Meanwhile, 8.1 million viewers tuned in to watch CBS’ primetime special about Letterman’s legacy, making it the 19th most-watched network program of the week (The Big Bang Theory was #1 with 14.6 million).

So far this week, with guests like Howard Stern, Bill Clinton and Adam Sandler, Letterman’s numbers are trending well above Fallon’s, meaning he will likely come out on top for his last full week of shows as well.

[Photo via screengrab]

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