Late Night TV Ratings: Monday, Feb 12, 2024

Note: LateNighter generally posts late night ratings on a two (business) day delay, which is how they are released by Nielsen.

The 11:35 p.m. offerings and CBS/NBC’s 12:37 a.m. offerings are off this week, but that doesn’t mean the entire late night landscape is dark!

Stewart’s first show as part-time Daily Show host (he’ll be fronting Mondays only through the November election) drew 930,000 total viewers — the most for a Daily Show episode in nearly six years (since March 28, 2018). The episode averaged 234,000 P18-49 viewers — No. 2 in all of late-night only behind the Late Show with Stephen Colbert  (245,000). That’s according to live plus same day data from Nielsen.

Stewart’s return to late-night is a huge deal for parent company Paramount. The company decided to simulcast Stewart’s return on other Paramount-owned cable networks — MTV, Paramount Network, TV Land, CMT, Pop, MTV2 and Logo. Combining the simulcasts with the original and repeat episodes on Comedy Central, you get a total of 1.85 million viewers watching Monday night’s episode. The total will grow substantially as time-shifted data trickles in.

For reference, prior to the writers’ strike in May, rotating guest hosts averaged 369,000 total viewers per show; when The Daily Show resumed in mid-October after writers’ strike concluded, that average fell to roughly 300,000 viewers on average.

Elsewhere in late-night Monday night, CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert defeated the 11:35 p.m. competition handily, both in Total Viewers and in the 18-49 demo. Colbert’s guests on Monday were fellow late-night host John Oliver and Killer Mike.

At 12:37 a.m., NBC and ABC split first place. NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers averaged the most People 18-49, while ABC News’ Nightline averaged the most Total Viewers at 12:37 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 12 (800,000).

Live+SD ratings (18-49 demo only)

Live+SD ratings (All Viewers 2+)