Monday Late Night Ratings: Meyers Gains Viewers on Biden Visit

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

President Joe Biden’s appearance Monday on the 10th anniversary episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers gave the program a nice bump in total viewers.

NBC’s 12:37 a.m. offering averaged 852,000 total viewers—No. 1 in the timeslot—and 111,000 P18-49 viewers this past Monday, per Nielsen live-plus-same-day data. That’s +39% growth in total viewers and +18% growth in P18-49 viewers from the previous Monday, when the show aired a repeat. Relative to the show’s year to-date average, Monday’s episode featuring Biden is +7% in total viewers, but -15% in P18-49 viewers.

Monday’s Biden-Meyers interview took place almost 10 years to the day after Biden was a guest on the first Late Night show with Meyers, which aired on Feb. 24, 2014, when Biden was vice president.

Meyers didn’t sweep the 12:37 a.m. timeslot, however. CBS’ After Midnight, hosted by Taylor Tomlinson, took first place in the advertiser-preferred P18-49 demographic (141,000). Brendan Hunt, Marc Maron, Zainab Johnson were guests on the program.

With many of Nightline’s regular viewers undoubtedly tuned into Late Night for Biden’s guest appearance, ABC’s late-night news show finished third in the time slot, both in total viewers (717,000) and in P18-49 (91,000).

After a week off, CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert returned with a new episode Monday, and averaged the most total viewers and P18-49 viewers on all of late-night, 2,014,000 and 246,000, respectively. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Julio Torres were guests on the program.

ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live and NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon split second place at 11:35 p.m. Kimmel averaged more total viewers than Fallon (1.42 vs. 1.19 million), while Fallon averaged more P18-49 viewers than Kimmel (173,000 vs. 163,000); a regular trend.

David Spade, Matty Matheson, and Jenny Lewis were Kimmel’s guests, while Austin Butler, Mark Ronson, Chance the Rapper, and Kings of Leon were Fallon’s guests on The Tonight Show.

How did ratings for Monday’s episodes compare with the prior Monday’s, which, with the exception of Nightline (coded as “special”), were all repeats? At 11:35 p.m., ABC gained +19% in total viewers and +28% in P18-49 viewers. CBS gained +45% in total viewers and +26% in P18-49 viewers, while NBC gained +18% in total viewers and +16% in P18-49 viewers. At 12:37 a.m., ABC gained +5% in total viewers and +23% in P18-49 viewers, and CBS gained +25% in total viewers and +19% in P18-49 viewers.

Jon Stewart returned for his third Monday as part-time Daily Show host on Comedy Central, and averaged his smallest live-plus-same-day audience so far — 885,000 total viewers and 189,000 P18-49 viewers. Relative to the previous Monday, The Daily Show shed -30% in total viewers and -16% in P18-49 viewers. However, that’s still a substantially larger delivery than what the program had been drawing prior to Stewart’s return, and these particular numbers that will grow once Nielsen delayed-viewing data arrives.

The Intercept’s Murtaza Hussain, and The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg were Stewart’s guests for the Monday, Feb. 26 episode focusing on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Live+SD ratings (18-49 demo only)

Live+SD ratings (All Viewers 2+)