Best Of Show: 'Late Show With Stephen Colbert' Grabs 6.6M Viewers

by Wayne Friedman , September 9, 2015

CBS’ “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” premiere delivered pretty much what was expected -- dominating higher ratings versus the competition and against year-ago show results.

Pulling in a Nielsen preliminary 6.6 million viewers, “Late Show” scored nearly triple the level of the 2.16 million viewers on the same night a year ago. The same levels were achieved in other key viewing demographics: a 1.4 rating among adults 18-49, up from a 0.4 the year before. Younger viewers 18-34 earned a 1.0 rating, versus a 0.3.

CBS said the results were the best -- excluding David Letterman’s final episodes earlier this year -- since July 1995.

Broadcast network competitors were well behind: NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” had 2.9 million viewers, and ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” had 1.75 million viewers.

Behind “Late Show”’s 1.4 rating among 18-49 viewers, “Tonight” was at a 0.88 rating; and “Kimmel” had a 0.35.

A stronger lead-in helped “Late Late Show with James Corden” raise viewership to 1.85 million; “Late Night with Seth Meyers” got to 1.3 million viewers.

NBC says “Tonight Show” did well considering the big Colbert debut. The show earned virtually its season average viewing metric among key 18-49 viewers on the night -- with a 0.89 rating.

celebrity, media measurement, tv

2 comments about "Best Of Show: 'Late Show With Stephen Colbert' Grabs 6.6M Viewers".

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, September 10, 2015 at 9:23 a.m.
I just saw a news flash on the Net to the effect that in Buffalo, New York, the "overnight" ratings for Colbert's second outing on Wednesday, were an almost exact reversal of his opeining night tune in levels. On Tuesday, Colbert got a 4.5, easily topping Fallon's 2.1 and Kimmel's 1.6; the next night, Colbert's rating dropped to 2.5 while Fallon's rose to 5.1 and Kimmel, remained in third with 1.6.

If this pattern holds true nationally, and I wouldn't be too surprised, then CBS and Colbertt will have to do some serious thinking about his format, energy level, guest selections and other matters. Naturally, all of this will take time to work out and it's not a given that Colbert will bomb, but the first indicators---if they are true---might---note: I said "might"---be portents of the future.
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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, September 10, 2015 at 1:35 p.m.

Now coming in, but unconfirmed, Nielsen TV home ratings for 56 major markets saw Colbert's rating drop about 35% on Wednesday compared to his debut performance on Tuesday, falling from a 4.9 tune-in rating to a 3.2. On the other hand, NBC's Fallon went from 2.4 on Tuesday to 3.1 on Wednesday.