Monthly Ratings: Fallon Finds Momentum Amid August Lull

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

August’s late-night ratings reflected the industry’s traditional summer slowdown, with most shows dark for at least two weeks and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show off the air entirely. That left news-based Nightline and Gutfeld! as the only two shows producing a full slate of original episodes during the month—though neither was rewarded for their efforts.

At 11:35 PM, CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert retained the top spot with an average 2.812 million total viewers across just four first-run broadcasts, a 6% decline from July’s post-cancellation announcement surge. ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! also slipped, by 11%, to 1.104 million viewers, while NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon bucked the trend, jumping 17% to 1.330 million viewers. That was enough to propel Tonight into second place among total viewers for the first time since August 2024.

In the 18–49 demo, Colbert again led the field with 264,000 viewers (down 5%), followed by Fallon with 134,000 (down 18%) and Kimmel with 129,000 (down 15%).

At 12:37 AM, NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers averaged 870,000 viewers (down 2%) and 93,000 in the demo (down 15%), while ABC’s Nightline fell to 610,000 viewers (down 15%) and 68,000 in the demo (down 24%).

At 10 PM, Fox News’s Gutfeld! continued to dominate in total viewers with 3.093 million (down 4%) and 220,000 in the demo (down 5%), while Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live averaged 267,000 viewers (down 18%) and 54,000 in the demo (down 25%).

Complete ratings charts for August 2025 follow below.

Note: Monthly 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.