September 14th, 2015
Jimmy Fallon’s late night show got the “Donald Trump bump up” as the Republican presidential hopeful’s appearance took “The Tonight Show†to its biggest ratings for a Friday broadcast in over eighteen months.
NBC’s “Tonight Show†brought in 4.5 million TV viewers, according to Nielsen’s numbers. The week-one duel between Fallon and CBS’ new “Late Show†host Stephen Colbert ended with “Late Show†drawing 3.5 million.
Colbert’s guests on Friday included Amy Schumer and Stephen King. Trump is set to visit “The Late Show†on Sept. 22.
CBS noted that “Late Show’s†Sept. 8 premiere episode has set a new record for total streams via CBS.com and CBS apps.
The pattern after four days indicates that NBC’s “Tonight Show†will continue maintain a comfortable lead over CBS and ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,†barring big stunts or guest booking coups.
For CBS, the win with Colbert moving into “The Late Show†host slot is double-digit gains compared to the network’s performance in the time slot this time last year. And Colbert is clearly drawing a younger audience than David Letterman did in his final season.
With the high level of scrutiny on the Fallon-Colbert competition, the biz will be eagerly awaiting the first time-shifted ratings for the new era of late-night. But that will require some patience. Nielsen’s live-plus-3 ratings for this past week are not expected to be released for another two weeks because the L3 turnaround time for the late-night daypart is much longer than it is for primetime ratings.
Categories: DISH & TV news