First on LateNighter: Nielsen live+7 late-night ratings numbers have arrived for the 2024 calendar year, and as is so frequently the case, the results can (and inevitably will) be spun any number of ways.
Measured by sheer audience size, Greg Gutfeld‘s late night-styled Fox News show attracted the largest average nightly audience for the year, clocking in at 2.76 million total viewers ages 2+. But as reps for the network late-night shows are quick to point out, Gutfeld! airs at 10pm ET and 7pm PT, when more people are awake and watching TV.
Another way to measure shows against one another—especially when they air at different times—is by percentage share, which measures the percentage of people watching a show compared to total number of people watching TV at that time. By that measure, CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert was 2024’s late-night ratings leader, drawing an average 8.7% among all viewers 2+ watching TV when it airs.
Then there’s the matter of demographics. The numbers above refer to all viewers aged 2+, but the viewers that advertisers care about most are in the 18-49 demo, where Colbert came out on top by both measures, drawing an average nightly audience of 281,000 viewers in the demo and a 4.47% share.
Finally, there’s year-over-year growth, where Comedy Central’s The Daily Show (with returning Monday night host Jon Stewart) came out on top, growing its year-over-year audience by a whopping 84% among total viewers, and by 53% among viewers in the demo. (The only other show among those we track to see growth among both total viewers and those in the demo was Gutfeld!, which grew by 30% in both.)
That’s the good news for late night, at least when it comes to terrestrial TV viewership. (Nielsen ratings do not include those watching late-night shows on streaming sites like Peacock, Hulu, Max and Paramount+, nor do they track social media impressions on sites like YouTube, X/Twitter and TikTok.)
The not-so-good news is that most of the network late-night shows logged fewer viewers in 2024 than they did in 2023. (The only exceptions were Late Night with Seth Meyers, which grew its audience among viewers 2+ by 3%, and After Midnight with Taylor Tomlinson, which did not air in 2023.)
While the across-the-board decreases at 11:35pm track with overall viewing trends, they too come with an asterisk, since the 2023 Writers Strike meant that all of the network late-night shows (except Nightline) were dark through the summer, a historically lower ratings period. Since yearly ratings averages are derived from first-run episodes only, that puts 2024 at something of a disadvantage, since its average includes those lower-rated summer episodes.
The show with the year’s largest ratings decreases—Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen—doesn’t have that excuse, since it continued to air through the summer of 2023, but given that Bravo was one of the few channels airing new content through the Writers Strike, it faced far greater competition this year.
Complete ratings charts for the year ending Dec 31, 2024 follow below.
Note: LateNighter’s annual ratings averages include only first-run episodes. Time period listed is most common airtime for show.
Live+ 7 Ratings — All Viewers (P2+)
| Avg Share (%) | Avg Viewers (000’s) | Vs Last Yr | |
| 10:00 PM | |||
| Gutfeld! (FNC)† 243 first-run episodes | 5.42 | 2,759 | +30.20% |
| Watch What Happens Live (Bravo)* 206 first-run episodes | 0.90 | 479 | -17.84% |
| 11:00 PM | |||
| The Daily Show (COM)* 139 first-run episodes | 2.67 | 1,054 | +84.27% |
| 11:35 PM | |||
| Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC) 155 first-run episodes | 6.09 | 1,773 | -2.25% |
| The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS) 152 first-run episodes | 8.71 | 2,568 | -6.31% |
| The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC) 175 first-run episodes | 4.67 | 1,373 | -5.51% |
| 12:37 PM | |||
| Nightline (ABC) * 243 first-run episodes | 3.93 | 862 | -3.69% |
| After Midnight (CBS) 130 first-run episodes | 3.54 | 716 | — |
| Late Night with Seth Meyers (ABC) 139 first-run episodes | 4.89 | 990 | +2.70% |
Live+ 7 Ratings — In the Demo (P18-49)
| Avg Share (%) | Avg Viewers (000’s) | Vs Last Yr | |
| 10:00 PM | |||
| Gutfeld! (FNC)† 243 first-run episodes | 2.35 | 241 | +29.57% |
| Watch What Happens Live (Bravo)* 206 first-run episodes | 1.36 | 153 | -27.49% |
| 11:00 PM | |||
| The Daily Show (COM)* 139 first-run episodes | 2.32 | 196 | +53.13% |
| 11:35 PM | |||
| Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC) 155 first-run episodes | 3.56 | 221 | -12.30% |
| The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS) 152 first-run episodes | 4.47 | 281 | -8.77% |
| The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC) 175 first-run episodes | 3.46 | 220 | -16.67% |
| 12:37 PM | |||
| Nightline (ABC) * 243 first-run episodes | 2.58 | 125 | -12.59% |
| After Midnight (CBS) 130 first-run episodes | 3.46 | 156 | — |
| Late Night with Seth Meyers (ABC) 139 first-run episodes | 3.38 | 152 | -13.64% |
Ratings data © The Nielsen Company, used under license.
Gutfeld? Who is that? From where?
from your mom’s house
Yeah, that’s exactly what Gutfeld would also say. How original. How funny. So sexist jokes are your thing? You must’ve been a real smart firecracker in school. You must have a great education and can solve so many of the world’s problems if someone would just give you a chance…
If the stupid asses would actually have some funny content to them other then repeating there unfunny biases jokes about trump maybe they would get back some of their viewers as soon as I hear that bull shit I just shut it off that goes for the rest of the network to
Ditto for me… but I don’t even bother watching at all anymore because I know what’s coming and it’s soood!!!
I agree–Yea for Putin! More tariffs please! And let’s shred the Constitution!
But Trump is a joke. So why not ride the joke and make money out of it? You guys are so hung up on nonsense that you are not noticing how billionaires are using your tax money as their own personal piggy bank.
I think it is funny how ratings on broadcast TV are compared to Fox cable TV. It is a joke. The broadcast networks should be embarrassed by their biased shows and ratings. The majority of Americans have access to both, not I. I never watch the broadcast networks and listen to Fox News and Gutfeld on Sirius XM.
Well if Greg airing early gives him an advantage then put Colbert on at that same time. I dare you
The reference to Gutfelds time slot has nothing to do with his exceptional ratings. Telling the truth is his secret.
How are constant sexist jokes ‘the truth’?
Agreed!
This must be ranked by left wing radicals trying to make excuses for liberal late night shows at every step of the way. Never fully admitting that Fox has the overall top show for late night. Too slanted so I will not be getting my news here.
You must be exhausting to be around, and an insufferable bore with your constant need to find the left in everything. Fox news is a joke, like your orange president who cheated on all his wives and bankrupted almost every business he ever had.
Talk about spin. The only thing that matters to advertisers is number of eyeballs broken down by demographics. You can try to spin it any way you want ro downplay how dominant Gutfeld is but do so at your own integrity.
Well, the fact that the network shows/news have been lying to us for the last four years when Biden was president does make it that people don’t wanna watch them no more. How can they be trusted.
When Gutfeld was on.at 11 he still had the best ratings. Would be more fair if you had mentioned that instead of your lame excuse that he is now on at 10 and competes against different shows now.