• by Wayne Friedman , November 22, 2013

Nearing his final days as the host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” Jay Leno still sits above his competition. 

A recent reading had the show earning a Nielsen 0.8 rating/4 share among the 18-49 crowd for the week ending Nov. 15. CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman” and ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” tied with a 0.6/3.

Total viewers went Leno’s way as well: NBC's “Tonight” with 3.8 million viewers, CBS' “Late Show” with 2.9 million viewers, and ABC's “Kimmel” with 2.5 million viewers.

Season-to-date numbers showed the same results: NBC's “Tonight” at 0.9/4, ABC's “Kimmel” at 0.7/3, and CBS' “Late Show” at 0.6/3 among 18-49 viewers. Total viewers have “Tonight” at 3.7 million, CBS “Late Show” at 2.9 million, and ABC's “Kimmel” at 2.6 million.

Leno will leave the show come February with Jimmy Fallon, host of NBC’s “Late Night,” taking over.

It's a tighter race for other late-night broadcast network shows -- those starting at 12:35 p.m. and beyond. NBC's “Late Night” earned a 0.6/4 and 1.9 million viewers; ABC's “Nightline” scored a 0.4/2 and 1.5 million viewers; CBS' “Late Late Show” is at 0.4/2 and 1.4 million. NBC's “Last Call” at 1:35 p.m. posted a 0.3/3 among 18-49 viewers and 1.0 million viewers.

Among the cable offerings, the best talk show among total viewers is Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” at 11 p.m. with 1.6 million viewers (at a 0.7 18-49 rating); and Comedy’s “The Colbert Report” at 11:30 p.m. at 1.2 million (a 0.5 rating among 18-49 viewers).

Turner Broadcasting’s TBS channel is still behind with “Conan” at 11 p.m. with 700,000 viewers (at a 0.3 number for 18-49 viewers) and TBS’ “Pete Holmes” at midnight with 300,000 viewers, for a 0.2 rating among 18-49 viewers.

Turner still has plenty to offer with another late-night young-skewing Adult Swim animated programming, averaging 1.9 million at 11:30 p.m. and 1.3 million viewers at 12:30 p.m. for the season so far. For its 18-49 crowd, the first Adult Swim hour earns a 0.9 rating among 18-49 viewers and a 0.6 for the second hour .