Weekly Ratings: Kimmel Wins 11:35 With Repeats as Fallon Rebounds

A quick note to fellow media reporters: LateNighter pays to license Nielsen ratings data in order to independently cover late-night TV viewership trends. If these figures inform your own reporting, please credit and link back to this post. We appreciate the collegial courtesy, and it helps sustain this reporting.

Jimmy Kimmel Live! didn’t air a single new episode last week, but that didn’t stop the ABC late-night show from holding onto first place at 11:35 p.m.

According to Nielsen Live+3 data, JKL averaged 1.81 million total viewers and 233,000 adults 18–49 across five repeats during the week of Oct. 18. Both figures were down sharply from the previous week, when Kimmel aired four originals and one repeat: total viewers fell 35 percent, while the demo dropped 31 percent.

Still, Kimmel’s repeats were enough to beat NBC’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, which returned to originals after an all-repeat week and averaged 1.44 million total viewers and 221,000 adults 18–49.

That held true even on Wednesday, when Fallon posted his strongest episode of the week with 1.67 million total viewers and 311,000 adults 18–49; Kimmel’s repeat that night still finished ahead in both measures.

Fallon nevertheless posted some of the week’s biggest gains, climbing 31 percent in total viewers and 65 percent in the demo compared to the previous week’s five repeats. Those increases appear to reflect both Tonight returning to originals and Kimmel shifting into repeats: compared with the week of Oct. 4, the last time Fallon aired originals (opposite new Kimmel episodes), Tonight was up 14 percent in total viewers and 23 percent among adults 18–49.

Tonight aired four new episodes and one repeat last week. Tuesday’s show was pushed back to 1:10 a.m. by NBC’s coverage of the NBA’s first-ever Tip-Off Tripleheader.

On CBS, Comics Unleashed aired repeats across both half hours last week. The Byron Allen-hosted series averaged approximately 843,000 total viewers across the full hour, virtually unchanged from 845,000 the previous week, while growing 18 percent in adults 18–49 to 120,000. That came despite the first half-hour shifting from mostly originals the week before to all repeats.

At 12:37 a.m., NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers rebounded from an all-repeat week, averaging 998,000 total viewers (+48 percent) and 135,000 adults 18–49 (+59 percent) across four originals and one repeat.

ABC’s Nightline averaged 1.05 million total viewers and 124,000 adults 18–49, giving it the total-viewer win over Meyers while Late Night prevailed in the demo.

Funny You Should Ask on CBS averaged approximately 561,000 total viewers across its full hour last week, down about 2 percent from 575,000 the week before, while holding essentially flat in the demo at 78,000 adults 18–49. As in the previous week, the show aired new episodes in its first half-hour and repeats in its second.

On cable, Fox News’ Gutfeld! drew an average 2.28 million viewers across five new episodes, up 7 percent week to week. It also gained 4 percent in the demo to 135,000 adults 18–49.

Comedy Central’s The Daily Show returned after a dark week with four new episodes, averaging 975,000 total viewers and 145,000 adults 18–49. Because Comedy Central aired other programming in the show’s time slot the previous week, there are no week-over-week comparisons. Jon Stewart hosted Monday, Michael Kosta took Tuesday, and Ronny Chieng hosted Wednesday and Thursday.

Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live averaged 289,000 total viewers (–21 percent) and 85,000 adults 18–49 (–30 percent) across five first-run episodes.

A reminder that linear ratings represent only one slice of the viewing audience, with additional viewing taking place on streaming services, YouTube, and other social media platforms.

Complete Nielsen Live+3 ratings for the week of October 18, 2026, follow below.

Live+3 Ratings — All Viewers (P2+)

Live+3 Ratings — In the Demo (P18-49)

Ratings data © The Nielsen Company, used under license.