NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” have delivered #1 finishes for the fourth quarter of 2011 versus all cable and broadcast competition in their time periods in total viewers. For the quarter, “Tonight” averaged a 0.9 rating, 3 share in adults 18-49 and 3.8 million viewers overall and “Late Night” earned a 0.6/3 in 18-49 and 1.8 million viewers overall.
The quarter ended with the week of December 19-23, during which Jay generated his biggest margins of the season over original competition from CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman” and Jimmy Fallon attracted his biggest overall audience (2.0 million viewers) in nearly two years.
“Tonight’s” 3.8 million viewers overall for the fourth quarter topped the 3.3 million for CBS’s “Late Show” and also out-delivered ABC’s combination of “Nightline” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” At 12:35 a.m. ET, Jimmy Fallon’s 1.8 million out-scored the 1.6 million for CBS’s “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” and Jimmy also delivered a bigger audience than ABC’s “Kimmel” both during their head-to-head half-hour and comparing full-duration results.
For the fourth quarter of 2011, “Tonight” increased its total-viewer margin over “Late Show” to 13 percent (3.761 million vs. 3.327 million), up from the year-ago advantage of 8 percent. Jimmy Fallon established a total-viewer lead over “Late Late Show” for the quarter of 15 percent (1.812 million vs. 1.569 million) after trailing by 2 percent one year ago.
Jimmy also increased his fourth-quarter lead over “Late Late Show” in adults 18-34 to 44 percent (302,000 vs. 209,000), up from last year’s 25 percent, and in adults 25-54 up to 8 percent (883,000 vs. 814,000) from 1 percent for the fourth quarter of 2010.
The fourth quarter concluded during the week of December 19-23, with “Tonight” topping “Late Show” by a margin of 19 percent in viewers 18-49 (1.136 million vs. 955,000) and by 23 percent in total viewers (3.866 million vs. 3.137 million), Jay’s biggest margins over a week of “Late Show” originals so far this season.
At 12:35 a.m. ET for the week of December 19-23, Jimmy Fallon generated his biggest 18-49 audience (771,000) in 15 weeks (since September 5-9) and biggest overall audience (2.025 million) in 23 months (since the week of January 18-22, 2010).
At 1:35 a.m. ET for the week of December 19-23, “Last Call with Carson Daly” attracted its biggest overall audience (1.057 million) in 15 weeks (since September 5-9). It’s the fourth consecutive week “Last Call” has delivered more than 1 million viewers overall.
(source; NBC)
