Feb. 2024 Late Night Ratings: Super Bowl Halo Boosts Top-Ranked Colbert

CBS’ record-setting Super Bowl audience gave a lift to the network’s late-night lineup in February 2024, as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and its lead-out After Midnight both earned wins in key audience measurements.

CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was the No. 1 show in all of late-night for the month, both in total viewers (2,583,000) and in P18-49 viewers (287,000), according to live-plus-seven Nielsen data for February 2024 across 12 original episodes.

That represents a +4% bump in total viewers and a +1% bump in P18-49 viewers from Jan. 2024, but -5.5% in total viewers and -3% in P18-49 viewers vs. February of last year.

CBS’ After Midnight hosted by Taylor Tomlinson averaged the most P18-49 viewers of the 12:37 a.m. late-night shows (166,000), but finished behind ABC and NBC in the timeslot in total viewers (747,000). The program debuted in January 2024.

Heading back to 11:35 p.m., ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! and NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon split second place, with ABC drawing more total viewers but NBC drawing more P18-49 viewers than its counterpart.

Jimmy Kimmel Live! averaged 1,670,000 total viewers and 192,000 P18-49 viewers in February 2024, per live-plus-seven data. Compared with the month prior, that’s up +0.2% in total viewers but -5% in P18-49 viewers. Compared with the year-ago month (Feb. 2023), that’s -4.5% in total viewers and a -15% decline in P18-49 viewers.

NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon averaged 1,414,000 total viewers and 227,000 P18-49 viewers in February 2024, per Nielsen live-plus-seven data over 15 original episodes. Compared with the month prior, that’s -3% in total viewers and -3% in P18-49 viewers. Compared with the year-ago month (Feb. 2023), that’s -7% in total viewers and -22.5% in P18-49 viewers.

NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers was the most-watched late-night offering at 12:37 a.m. this past month, averaging 953,000 total viewers and 144,000 P18-49 viewers. That’s -2% and -8%, respectively, from the previous month, +0.2% in total viewers but -23% in P18-49 viewers from the year-ago month.

ABC’s half-hour late night news program Nightline averaged the second-most total viewers at 12:37 a.m. this past month (891,000), and third-most P18-49 viewers (116,000). That’s up +1% but -13%, respectively, from the previous month, -1% and -17%, respectively from the year-ago month.

But the late-night TV story of February 2024 was Jon Stewart’s return to The Daily Show anchor desk. He’s hosting Monday episodes of The Daily Show through the 2024 election. Stewart’s return has had a halo effect on the program as a whole.

The Daily Show on Comedy Central averaged 1,250,000 total viewers and 236,000 P18-49 viewers in February 2024, per Nielsen live-plus-seven data. That’s a whopping +133% in total viewers and +107% in P18-49 viewers relative to Feb. 2023.

*With the exception of The Daily Show, each of these late night offerings air five nights a week. Only original airings are included in the averages below. Repeats are excluded.

Live+ 7 ratings (18-49 demo)

Live+7 ratings (Viewers 2+)