Here Are Final Late Night Ratings for Q4 2024

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

Seasonality, the election, and the NFL each contributed to a mostly positive fourth quarter for late night, as most of the major players picked up viewers following the traditional summer slump.

While The Late Show with Stephen Colbert once again took the top spot at 11:35pm, it faced much stiffer competition from Jimmy Kimmel Live! the last three months of the year, thanks in no small part to several highly rated post-Monday Night Football games. The ABC late-night show posted the largest gains of the quarter, increasing its audience by a whopping +42% among total viewers, and +33% among viewers in the key 18-49 demo.

Colbert also saw gains for the quarter, albeit more modest than Kimmel’s, with the CBS host posting an increase of nearly +4% among total viewers and +6% in the demo. Q4 ended up being a mixed bag for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, with total viewers up nearly +2% and younger viewers down -4%.

In the late-late slot at 12:37am, NBC and CBS split bragging rights for the quarter, with Late Night with Seth Meyers taking the top prize among total viewers, and After Midnight with Taylor Tomlinson winning more viewers aged 18-49. Both shows posted gains over Q3, though none as large as those seen by ABC’s Nightline, which (like Kimmel) benefitted from the one-two-punch of the election and some strong Monday night NFL lead-ins.

Moving over the cable side of the dial, Gutfeld! scored its highest ratings in the program’s history, up nearly +9% in total viewers vs an already record-breaking Q3. Greg Gutfeld‘s average audience now exceeds the top-rated network late-night shows by half a million viewers, although he benefits from an earlier airtime when more people are watching TV across across the board (10pm ET/7pm PT).

Watch What Happens Live had a less stellar quarter, relying as it does on the popularity of the reality programming that it follows. The Andy Cohen-hosted show shed -10% of its total viewers and -20% of its younger viewers vs Q3.

The fourth quarter was also a mixed bag for Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, which lost -3% of its total audience, but gained +3% among younger viewers.

Complete ratings charts for Q4 2024 follow below.

Note: Quarterly ratings averages include only first-run episodes. Time period listed is most common airtime for show.

Live+ 7 Ratings — All Viewers (P2+)

Live+ 7 Ratings — In the Demo (P18-49)

Ratings data © The Nielsen Company, used under license.