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First on LateNighter: James Corden’s return to late night did not exactly arrive with World Cup-sized ratings. But given the circumstances, it wasn’t a faceplant, either.
According to Nielsen Live+Same Day data, Thursday’s premiere of FIFA World Cup on FOX After Hours with James Corden averaged 418,000 total viewers and 110,000 adults 18–49 across its midnight hour on FOX.
To compare Corden’s performance to the rest of broadcast late night, LateNighter looked at the same midnight-to-1 a.m. ET window on ABC, NBC, and CBS. ABC’s hour was split between Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Nightline, NBC’s between The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers, and CBS’ between two episodes of Comics Unleashed followed by Funny You Should Ask.
On that basis, FOX trailed the same-hour competition in total viewers: ABC averaged 1.564 million viewers, NBC averaged 930,000, and CBS averaged 533,000.
The demo picture was less bleak. After Hours averaged 110,000 adults 18–49, topping CBS’ 64,000 and coming within range of NBC’s 119,000. ABC led the hour in the demo with 320,000 adults 18–49.
In other words: not a breakout, but not a total whiff either. Airing six hours after FOX’s coverage of the tournament’s opening match ended, with little promotion beyond a few passing on-air mentions that day, After Hours was never likely to outdraw ABC and NBC’s entrenched late-night lineups. But for a sports-adjacent pop-up show airing after midnight without any real lead-in, finishing just behind NBC in adults 18–49 and ahead of CBS in the demo qualifies as something short of embarrassing.
Corden’s premiere featured Mila Kunis, who appeared on the first episode of his CBS Late Late Show, and a pre-taped bit with the U.S. men’s national team. The show is set to air several nights a week on FOX through July 15, live at midnight ET and on tape delay in other time zones.
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Ratings Data © The Nielsen Company, used under license.
That seems a very very very low number nation wide. I guess it is better than zero, which is where I value most late night programming, but is still sem quite low. Maybe many/most Americans find sleep superior to watching fools on the TV.
Corden is probably the least culturally network late-night talk show host since at least Kilborn, who was at least occasionally funny. It’s a shame his mom didn’t swallow the load his fat ass was swimming around in.
Late night TV pretty much ended when Johnny Carson retired back in 1992, despite Jay Leno and David Letterman managing to keep it relevant for an additional 20 years. Joan Rivers didn’t get to enjoy long-term success as Fox seemed to lack confidence in the short-lived Fox Late Show franchise, combined with the pressures to keep things status quo amid the fall-out between Rivers and Carson during that time. Arscenio Hall had a good show that lasted 5 seasons, and that show fell to the wayside when Leno and Letterman proved to be too popular and too strong. There have been times when Saturday Night Live was at its best. SNL had competition for a few seasons with Fox’s Mad TV franchise, which I wish Fox or another network (like CBS) would consider reviving that once-a-week series. Another revolutionary late night show from 50+ years ago was The Midnight Special, and I wish NBC could revive it too. In the last decade, Kimmel, Fallon, and Colbert became unwatchable and aren’t very interesting. ABC was at its best back when news program Nightline ran at 11:30PM, and substantive topics were featured.
Eric – pretty concise.
But where do you stand on O’Brien, Ferguson, Meyers, Corden?
And what about Comedy Central? They’ve had multiple “late night” contributions (Daily Show, Colbert Report, & a bunch of “what was the name again” by the likes of Quinn, Jefferies, Wilmore, Jeselnik, Spade, Charlamagne).
And of coarse E! gave it a go with Chelsea Lately.
sure hope he isn’t promoting the orange freak
Hope he comes back permanently.
Not well advertised at all, if only on Fox that’s the problem. I ❤️ James, if I had only known. Now I’m going to be watching.