Note: LateNighter’s daily ratings reports are drawn from Nielsen live-plus-same-day data and do not include delayed and/or streaming views. They are generally posted on a two (business) day delay, which is how they are released by Nielsen.
There’s a good reason NBC’s late night shows produce new episodes for Thanksgiving night. That reason? Thanksgiving football, which delivers a lead-in the size late-night shows rarely see.
Even with hourlong football over-run, NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers walloped the competition Thursday Nov 28, with both shows drawing more viewers than their network competitors combined.
With a East Coast start time of 12:28 a.m., Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show more than doubled its average total viewers week-over-week to 2,618,000 per Nielsen live-plus-same-day data. Its audience in the key 18-49 demo saw a whopping 300% increase to 847,000 viewers—that’s six times more than the number two finisher in that measure, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Both Kimmel and CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert aired repeats, as did After Midnight with Taylor Tomlinson on CBS.
Fallon’s guests Thanksgiving night were Jerry Seinfeld, Cody Rhodes, and Billy Strings. Cher also made a special appearance in the show’s cold open.
Late Night with Seth Meyers also saw week-over-week gains, albeit more modest than Fallon’s. Despite starting at 1:30 a.m. on the East Coast (an hour where a show’s greatest competiton is sleep), Meyers’ annual Thanksgiving episode still drew more viewers than even the 11:35 p.m. shows on ABC and CBS.
The Daily Show was dark all Thanksgiving week, with Comedy Central airing other programming in its timeslot.
Thursday night’s complete ratings charts follow below.
Live+SD ratings (All Viewers 2+)
| Show Name | Avg Share | Avg Viewers | vs same day last week |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:00 PM | |||
| The Daily Show (CC) | dark | dark | dark |
| 11:35 PM | |||
| Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC) (R 11/19/24) | 3.08 | 955,000 | -40% |
| The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS) (R 11/7/24) | 3.32 | 1,025,000 | -39% |
| The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC) | 11.88 | 2,618,000 | +127% |
| 12:35 AM | |||
| Nightline (ABC)* | 2.51 | 554,000 | -33% |
| After Midnight (CBS) (R 9/25/24) | 2.27 | 466,000 | -14% |
| Late Night with Seth Meyers (NBC) | 8.10 | 1,298,000 | +50% |
Live+SD ratings (18-49 demo only)
| Show Name | Avg Share | Avg Viewers | vs same day last week |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:00 PM | |||
| The Daily Show (CC) | dark | dark | dark |
| 11:35 PM | |||
| Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC) (R 11/19/24) | 1.85 | 141,000 | -27% |
| The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS) (R 11/7/24) | 1.68 | 127,000 | -40% |
| The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC) | 15.84 | 847,000 | +319% |
| 12:35 AM | |||
| Nightline (ABC)* | 1.45 | 77,000 | -35% |
| After Midnight (CBS) (R 9/25/24) | 1.85 | 93,000 | -18% |
| Late Night with Seth Meyers (NBC) | 10.02 | 397,000 | +150% |
Ratings Data © The Nielsen Company, used under license.
