'Tonight' Wins First Season Week, 'Late Show' Closes Gap

Although “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” won the first week of the TV season in the late-night category, CBS cut into the show’s dominating lead with its new “Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

NBC’s “Tonight” posted a Nielsen 3.6 million viewers, down 8% from a year ago. But contrast, “Late Show” improved 19% to 3.2 million viewers.

“Late Show” also picked up in key demographics among younger viewers, gaining 60% to a 0.78 rating/4 share among 18-49 viewers; and near 70% among 18-34 viewers, to a 0.5/4.

The “Tonight” show was still ahead among key viewing groups -- a 1.05 rating/5 share in 18-49 viewers -- down slightly from a 1.09/5 in the first week a year ago.

ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” gave up ground to both shows -- down 13% to 2.5 million total viewers and off 14% to 0.6/3 among 18-49 viewers for the first week.

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NBC is also in first place among the later-night talk shows: NBC “Late Night with Seth Meyers” had 1.6 million viewers, up 7%; with CBS “The Late Late Show With James Corden” at 1.4 million viewers, down 7%. “Late Night” also leads in 18-49 viewers -- a 0.5/4, up 17% versus a year ago, while the “Late Late Show” gained 33% to score a 0.4/3.

1 comment about "'Tonight' Wins First Season Week, 'Late Show' Closes Gap ".
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  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, October 2, 2015 at 12:27 p.m.

    If you compare the Nielsen viewer tallies for the 18-49 age group versus total viewers for the first hour when all three shows are competing, more or less, head-on, you get an interesting fix regarding their relative appeal to "younger" adults. According to Nielsen, only 34-35% of the "tonight Show's live/same day average commercial minute audience came from the 18-49 age group, while Colbert drew an even smaller percentage---31%--- and KKimmel trailed both of the leaders with only 30%. In other words, most of the in-home, live/same day viewers for all three shows are over 50. It will be interesting to see how the delayed viewing and audiences reached via other platforms data alters this picture---as it will, to some extent.

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