CBS: Stephen Colbert Hangs On To Weekly Total-Viewer Winning Streak With L+3

Update with L+3 stats: One day after NBC noted Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon bested CBS’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert in total viewers last week, ending Colbert’s winning streak that started with President Trump’s inauguration, CBS issued Live + 3 stats showing Colbert’s show added 480L viewers. Fallon’s younger skewing show added 200K viewers factoring in the delayed viewing. And Fallon’s Live + Same Day win being fairly slim, the additional viewing put Colbert’s show in front for the week with 3.1M viewers to Fallon’s 2.86M. Fallon continues to dominate in the key ad sales demographic, 18-49, as he has throughout this hot late-night competition with Colbert.

Previous: NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon won last week in total viewers, besting CBS’ Late Show with Stephen Colbert for the first time since Donald Trump’s inauguration. Tonight averaged 2.67 million viewers overall for the week, topping Late Show’s 2.62 million.

Caveat: Colbert’s ratings for the week excluded Thursday and Friday, when his show ran repeats while he traveled to Russia. Colbert’s Monday-Wednesday average represent his lowest-rated week, in total viewers and in the demo, since January 9-13, aka the week before the inauguration. Before last week’s stats, Colbert originals had won 18 consecutive weeks, excluding his repeat weeks.

Given the narrowness of Fallon’s lead, it’s likely Colbert will pull ahead when L+3 stats come in, but the press has not waited for L+3 as is has been energetically reporting Colbert’s Live+Same Day stats since he pulled ahead in total viewers with Trump-centric openings.

Fallon’s 62% demo margin over Colbert is his biggest versus a week of Colbert originals since the week of January 9-13. Among ages 18-49, Fallon’s 0.68, vs. Colbert’s 0.42, topped the prior biggest margins of one week earlier, when Fallon bested Colbert by 58%.

Tonight’s 0.68 demo rating matches the program’s highest since the week of April 3-7, when a week of episodes from Orlando averaged a 0.69.

ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live clocked 1.96 million total viewers and tied Colbert’s 0.42 demo rating; JKL aired a repeat on Friday.