May 2026 Late-Night Ratings: Colbert Exits on Top by a Mile

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The Late Show with Stephen Colbert dominated late night ratings in Stephen Colbert’s final month behind the desk, drawing the show’s largest monthly audience since its 2015 launch and more viewers than its ABC and NBC 11:35 p.m. time slot competitors combined.

According to Nielsen Live+7 ratings data, Colbert’s Late Show averaged 4.20 million total nightly viewers in May 2026, up 49% from April. The show also led the field among adults 18–49, averaging 475,000 viewers in the demo, up 91% month-over-month.

The biggest lift came, of course, from Colbert’s May 21 finale.

All told, the episode averaged 9.77 million viewers, making it the program’s highest-rated weeknight episode ever. Only Colbert’s 2016 Sunday night post-Super Bowl broadcast drew a larger audience, with 20.81 million Live+7 viewers. Measured by share, the finale topped even that post-Super Bowl episode, with 33.32% of people watching TV at the time tuning in for Colbert’s swan song, compared with 21.61% for the Super Bowl episode.

In the demo, Colbert’s finale ranked as the show’s seventh most-watched episode ever, averaging 1.58 million adults 18–49, while posting a series-high 26.12% share.

But viewers didn’t only show up for the last episode. The Late Show rode a three-week farewell surge that sent Colbert out at ratings levels not seen anywhere in late night in more than a decade—no small feat in a TV landscape where cord-cutting and changing viewing habits have dramatically reduced overall viewing in the late-night daypart.

Notably, Colbert’s gains did not come at the expense of his 11:35 competitors. Though their month-long nightly averages paled in comparison to Colbert, both Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon still grew their audiences month-over-month.

Jimmy Kimmel Live! placed second among total viewers with 2.54 million viewers, up 2% month-over-month, while NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon averaged 1.42 million viewers, up 17%. The two shows swapped paces in the demo, with Fallon logging a nightly count of 241,000, up 19%, while Kimmel averaged 238,000, up 8%.

May also brought CBS’s first post-Colbert numbers, as Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed began airing in the network’s former Late Show slot. Across six first-run episodes, the first half hour of Comics Unleashed at 11:35 p.m. averaged 941,000 total viewers and 98,000 adults 18–49. The show’s second nightly episode, airing at 12:05 a.m., averaged 612,000 total viewers and 63,000 adults 18–49 across all telecasts.

At 12:35 a.m., Allen’s Funny You Should Ask, which assumed the CBS slot previously occupied by Comics Unleashed, averaged 475,000 total viewers and 54,000 adults 18–49. Its 1:05 a.m. half-hour averaged 404,000 total viewers and 52,000 demo viewers.

At 12:37 a.m., NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers led ABC’s Nightline in both total viewers and the demo. Meyers averaged 1.05 million total viewers, up 17% from April, and 157,000 adults 18–49, down 9%. Nightline averaged 911,000 total viewers, down 5%, and 78,000 adults 18–49, down 15%.

Switching to cable, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show averaged 1.08 million total viewers in May, down 10% from April, and 213,000 adults 18–49, down 23%.

Fox News’s Gutfeld!, which airs at 10 p.m. ET, averaged 3.06 million total viewers in May, down 7% from April. In the demo, Gutfeld! averaged 195,000 viewers, down 23%.

Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live averaged 343,000 total viewers, down 4% month-over-month, and 109,000 adults 18–49, down 8%.

Year-Over-Year vs. May 2025

Looking only at shows with apples-to-apples comparisons from May 2025, the total audience across LateNighter’s tracked programs grew 23% among total viewers and 34% among adults 18–49 in May, with five of the eight returning programs posting gains in both ratings measurements.

Colbert unsurprisingly led the way, with The Late Show jumping 79% in total viewers and 144% in the demo year-over-year. Jimmy Kimmel Live! also posted big gains, rising 39% overall and 38% among adults 18–49, while The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon was up 7% in total viewers and 47% in the demo.

Elsewhere, The Daily Show rose 19% in total viewers and 10% in the demo, while Late Night with Seth Meyers climbed 13% overall and 26% among adults 18–49. Nightline was up 4% in total viewers but down 19% in the demo.

The only programs down in both measurements were Gutfeld!, which fell 6% in total viewers and 5% in the demo, and Watch What Happens Live, which was down 11% overall and 12% among adults 18–49.

Complete ratings charts for May 2026 follow below.

Note: Monthly ratings averages include only first-run episodes, except in time periods where no first-run episodes air. Time period listed is the most common airtime for each show.

Live+ 7 Ratings — All Viewers (P2+)

Live+ 7 Ratings — In the Demo (P18-49)

Ratings data © The Nielsen Company, used under license.