ABC's 'Nightline' Leads Late Night Overall, 'Tonight' Beats 'Late Show'

by Wayne Friedman, Dec 20, 2012, 9:37 PM

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Just weeks before Jimmy Kimmel hopes to change the late-night TV landscape, ABC's "Nightline" continues to lead overall this season with NBC's "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" just ahead of CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman."

The ABC news show is earning a Nielsen 3.9 million viewers for the season thus far, and a 0.9 rating/4 share among 18-49 viewers.

In the entertainment talk area, "Tonight" is just ahead of "Late Show" -- 3.5 million against 3.1 million in total viewers, and well as being ahead in 18-49 viewers -- 0.8/3 for "Tonight" and 0.7/3 for "Late Show." Looking at more detailed viewer data, "Tonight" has 1.025 million 18-49 viewers versus the "Late Show" with 926,000.

ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" -- which runs between 12 midnight and 1 a.m. -- has been earning season-to-date numbers averaging 1.956 million viewers and a 0.5 rating/ 3 share among 18-49 viewers. Kimmel's specific 18-49 viewer average is 676,000. ABC says "Kimmel" is the only talk show to increase its numbers in late night --  1.956 million against 1.838 million a year ago.

Starting January 8, ABC is flipping things around: "Kimmel" is going head to head to against the main late-night network NBC and CBS entertainment talk shows starting at 11:35 p.m. "Nightline" will follow at 12:35 p.m.

NBC's "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" is a bit ahead of CBS's "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson". "Late Night" is averaging 657,000 in 18-49 viewers against "Late Late Show," which has 570,000. The NBC show is ahead of the CBS show in overall viewers -- 1.7 million to 1.5 million.

Late night cable shows have Comedy Central's “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” leading the pack for the season so far -- 1.7 million viewers and a 0.7 rating among 18-49 viewers. Comedy's “The Colbert Report,” is at 1.3 million viewers and a 0.6 in 18-49. 

TBS's "Conan" is at 1.0 million viewers and a 0.5 in 18-49 viewers, with Turner's sister programming block Adult Swim registering 2.1 million viewers and a 1.0 18-49 rating during the 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. time period and 1.5 million viewers and 0.6 rating among 18-49 viewers for its 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. time slot.

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1 comment on "ABC's 'Nightline' Leads Late Night Overall, 'Tonight' Beats 'Late Show'".

1. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited
   

   commented on: December 21, 2012 at 11:16 a.m.
   How do you say foot-shoot in ABC speak ?

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