Weekly Ratings: Colbert Tops, Kimmel Gains, Gutfeld Holds Steady

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

With most shows back producing new episodes following a short winter break the week prior, the week of February 23rd, 2025 mostly saw a return to status quo for late night. That was good news for ABC’s late-night lineup, which saw the week’s biggest gains.

It was more of a mixed bag for NBC, where The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon saw only modest gains over the preceding rerun-filled week, while Late Night with Seth Meyers (which aired a second week of repeats) continued to shed viewers.

At 11:35pm, Jimmy Kimmel Live! was the week’s biggest mover, growing its audience by nearly 42 percent week-over-week among total viewers, and by 15 percent among viewers in the key 18-49 demographic. Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show was also up compared to last week’s slate of reruns, but by a significantly smaller margin (+7% among total viewers, and less than 1% among younger viewers).

Both shows appeared to peel away some viewers from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which was down-15% among total viewers and -21% in the demo. Still, The Late Show—which benefited last week from being the only broadcast network producing new episodes at 11:35pm—continued to draw the largest audience in the timeslot across both key measurements. Kimmel and Fallon split second place, with Kimmel pulling in more total viewers, and Fallon more younger viewers.

With Seth Meyers and team enjoying the second week of a two-week break last week, the ratings picture was a bit more wonky in the 12:37am timeslot, where ABC’s Nightline was the only show to grow its average nightly audience. The ABC News show took the top prize for the week in the late-late slot among total viewers, up 16% week over week.

Nightline also grew by +28% among younger viewers, but that was only enough to place second next to a week of Late Night with Seth Meyers reruns.

After Midnight with Taylor Tomlinson placed second in the timeslot among total viewers, and third among younger viewers, with week-over-week declines of -6% and -18% respectively.

Switching to cable, Gutfeld! held steady in Fox News’ 10pm ET/7pm PT timeslot, with its total viewer count down only marginally over last week, and its younger viewer count up slightly. Greg Gutfeld’s late night-styled show continues to draw the largest overall audience among the shows we track, with its share (the percentage of viewers watching TV during its timeslot) only a tick below Colbert’s.

Like its network counterparts, The Daily Show also returned from mid-winter break last week, growing total its total viewers by 3% and younger viewers by 27% compared to its most recent week of shows starting Feb 16. (Comedy Central generally doesn’t air repeats of The Daily Show when it’s on break).

Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen only aired one episode two weeks ago vs four this past week, making its week-over-week growth numbers (-9% among total viewers, +12% in the demo) less of an apples-to-apples comparsion. Notably, last Tuesday’s episode with guests Jennifer Tilly and Crystal Kung Minkoff of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills drew an average 729,000 viewers, the show’s largest total audience in six months.

Complete ratings charts for the week of February 23th, 2025 follow below.

Note: Time period listed is most common airtime for show.

Live+ 3 Ratings — All Viewers (P2+)

Live+ 3 Ratings — In the Demo (P18-49)

Ratings data © The Nielsen Company, used under license.