Stephen Colbert Tops Election Week Late-Night Ratings

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

Late-night hosts weren’t in a particularly jokey mood last week in the wake of Tuesday’s election results, but if there’s one positive the team at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert can take away, it’s that the program captured first place in the 11:35 p.m. Nielsen ratings race yet again.

Colbert finished No. 1 at 11:35 p.m. in both total viewers and P18-49 for the fourth consecutive week, averaging 2,326,000 with 267,000 viewers, respectively, for the week of November 4, per Nielsen live-plus-three-day data. That’s -2% in total viewers and -4% in P18-49 from the week prior (w/o Oct. 28), but +94% and +96%, respectively, from the year-ago week (w/o Nov. 6, 2023, a repeat-filled week for the show). The Late Show only aired three new episodes this past week. The show was preempted on Tuesday, Nov. 5 for Election Night coverage, and aired a repeat on Friday, Nov. 8.

ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! and NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon split second place in the 11:35 p.m. slot. Kimmel averaged 1,780,000 total viewers with 210,000 P18-49 over four telecasts (three new episodes) this past week. That’s down -3% in total viewers and -9% in P18-49 from the week prior, -3% and +2%, respectively, from the year-ago week. Fallon, meanwhile, averaged 1,228,000 total viewers with 212,000 P18-49. That’s up +6% in total viewers and +21% in P18-49 from the week before, -6% and +0.5%, respectively, from the year-ago week. Similar to Colbert, both Kimmel and Fallon were preempted on Tuesday for their network’s Election Night coverage.

Hitting fast forward to 12:35, NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers averaged 937,000 total viewers with 151,000 P18-49 over four telecasts (three new episodes) for the week. That’s down -1% in total viewers but up +9% in P18-49 from pre-election week, +4% and +1%, respectively, from the year-ago week.

CBS’ After Midnight with Taylor Tomlinson averaged 714,000 total viewers with 152,000 P18-49 this past week. That’s up +8% in total viewers and +6% in P18-49 from the week prior.

ABC’s Nightline averaged 903,000 total viewers with 119,000 P18-49 for the week of Nov. 4. That’s -0.3% in total viewers and -8% in P18-49 from the week prior, -7% and -6%, respectively, from the year-ago week.

Unlike its late-night counterparts, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show went live Tuesday, airing an hour-long Election Night special across nine Paramount cable channels, averaging 1,167,000 viewers overall, per Nielsen live-plus-three data.

Taking the Tuesday special with its simulcasts into account, The Daily Show went on to average 990,000 total viewers with 199,000 P18-49 for the week beginning Nov. 4, per Nielsen live-plus-three data. That’s down -5% in total viewers but up +3% among P18-49 from the week prior, +96% and +70%, respectively, from the year-ago week. Jordan Klepper hosted The Daily Show on Monday, Stewart hosted the Election Night special on Tuesday, Desi Lydic hosted Wednesday, and Ronny Chieng wrapped up the week hosting Thursday.

The week’s complete ratings charts follow below.

Weekly live+3 ratings (Viewers 2+)

Weekly live+3 ratings (P18-49 Demo)

Ratings Data © The Nielsen Company, used under license.