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Jimmy Kimmel’s summer substitutes have a new ratings leader: Rosie O’Donnell.
O’Donnell’s first night guest-hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live! drew 1.87 million total viewers Monday, according to preliminary Nielsen Live+Same Day figures—the biggest audience for any of Kimmel’s guest hosts so far this summer.
That was also enough to beat NBC’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. And among the late-night shows tracked by LateNighter, O’Donnell led the key adults 18–49 demo, drawing 218,000 viewers compared with 156,000 for Fallon.
O’Donnell’s advantage was even more pronounced online.
Her Monday night monologue has drawn 2.4 million views on YouTube as of this writing, more than twice as many as the most-watched monologue from any of Kimmel’s other guest hosts this summer.
None of this puts O’Donnell in Kimmel territory just yet. Kimmel’s own monologues routinely top 3 million views on YouTube—and often go much higher—while his Live+Same Day audiences regularly surpass 2 million viewers.
And Monday’s Nielsen number is only an early snapshot. Like all preliminary Live+Same Day ratings, O’Donnell’s 1.87 million viewer total will grow as delayed viewing is added over the coming days.
As we’ve reported, there was some built-in curiosity around O’Donnell’s booking. She has been one of Donald Trump’s most frequent celebrity targets for nearly two decades, and her week behind Kimmel’s desk put her back on network television in a format she once dominated.
Through three nights, O’Donnell has taken several shots at Trump without once mentioning him by name. On Tuesday, she credited “President Oompa Loompa” with making her “re-famous.”
“Couldn’t have done it without you, sweetie,” she said. “You brought me back, just like you did with fascism and the measles.”
