Note: LateNighter generally posts late night weekly live-plus-three ratings on a three (business) day delay, which is how they are released by Nielsen.
After a week of mostly delayed start times due to network coverage of The 2024 Democratic National Convention, the late-night shows were back to their usual start-times last week, although all but ABC’s Nightline aired repeats while their hosts took the traditionally quiet last week of summer off.
Ratings-wise, the end result was, well… mixed.
Last week’s ratings victor, CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was on top again per Nielsen live-plus-three-day data, despite the fact that his average audience of 1,276,000 total viewers for the week’s five days of repeats was down 36% compared to four days of new episodes the week prior. In the 18-49 demo, he fell even further, drawing 145,000 viewers–down 40% week over week.
Colbert’s 11:35 p.m. timeslot competitors fared relatively better among total viewers, with NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon coming in second with a nightly average 960,000 total viewers, a 13% increase over the week prior. Jimmy Kimmel Live! also saw week-over-week gains of 4%, with an average 903,000 total viewers nightly. Kimmel saw similar growth among 18-49 year olds, drawing 131,000 viewers in the demo, up nearly 5% week-over-week. Fallon saw a 7% decline among younger viewers compared to the week prior, but still edged out Kimmel with a nightly average of 140,000.
At 12:35 a.m., Nightline reaped the benefits of being the week’s only late-night show airing new episodes, coming in first among its timeslot competitors–albeit with an asterisk, since the ABC News series has the ratings advantage of ending a half hour earlier than its competition. With an average of 662,000 total viewers and 99,000 viewers aged 18-49, Nightline was the only 12:35 a.m. show to gain viewers, notching week-over-week gains of 13% and 16%.
Despite the fact that most of their new episodes the week prior had start times well past 1:00 a.m. eastern, NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers and CBS’ After Midnight both logged viewership declines last week, with Meyers drawing averages of 598,000 total viewers and 97,000 viewers in the demo (down 4% in both measures). After Midnight saw an even steeper drop, with averages of 468,000 total viewers and 69,000 viewers aged 18-49 (down 19% and 32% week-over-week).
The week’s complete ratings charts follow below. (Note that Comedy Central did not air The Daily Show the week of August 26.)
Weekly Live+3 Ratings (Viewers 2+)
| Network | Show Name | Total Viewers | % Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:35 PM | |||
| ABC | Jimmy Kimmel Live! (R) | 903,000 | 3.28 |
| CBS | The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (R) | 1,276,000 | 4.66 |
| NBC | The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (R) | 960,000 | 3.55 |
| 12:35 AM | |||
| ABC | *Nightline | 662,000 | 3.24 |
| CBS | After Midnight (R) | 468,000 | 2.47 |
| NBC | Late Night With Seth Meyers (R) | 598,000 | 3.16 |
(R) = Exclusively rebroadcasts
Weekly Live+3 Ratings (18-49 demo)
| Network | Show Name | Total Viewers | % Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:35 PM | |||
| ABC | Jimmy Kimmel Live! (R) | 131,000 | 2.32 |
| CBS | The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (R) | 145,000 | 2.55 |
| NBC | The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (R) | 140,000 | 2.51 |
| 12:35 AM | |||
| ABC | *Nightline | 99,000 | 2.28 |
| CBS | After Midnight (R) | 69,000 | 1.69 |
| NBC | Late Night With Seth Meyers (R) | 97,000 | 2.38 |
(R) = Exclusively rebroadcasts
© The Nielsen Company, used under license.
