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In its first show since the WGA strike’s resolution, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” scored the highest viewership among late night shows airing on Monday, Oct. 2.
As late night fans tuned in to Kimmel’s first show following the series’ five-month hiatus, the ABC talk show brought in 2.27 million total viewers and a 0.33 rating in the key broadcast demographic among adults 18-49, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day figures.
The viewership for the telecast exceeded that of CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” which debuted its post-strike return to 2.16 million viewers, marking a 5% victory for Kimmel — and 0.16 rating — which Kimmel’s telecast exceeded by 106%. Similarly, total viewership for Kimmel was up 54% as compared to NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” which premiered to a viewership of 1.48 million. Kimmel’s demo rating was also up 74% over Fallon’s, which scored a 0.19 rating.
Viewership information for “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” which also returned this week, is not available at the moment.
As Kimmel and his production staff returned to the stage for the first time since the onset of the writers’ strike in early May, the Monday night telecast scored its most-watched premiere in six years, since Sept. 25, 2017. The airing also exceeded viewership for its most recent season opener on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022 by 8% as it brought in 2.11 million total viewers.
As expected, the Monday telecast of “Kimmel” also marked the most-watched telecast of the show since June 2022.
Similarly, “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” saw a 19% year-over-year increase in total viewers on its first night back, as well as a 16% rise in the demo. Additionally, when compared to the last new episode of “The Tonight Show,” which premiered May 1, Monday night’s show marked a 22% increase in total viewers and a 30% increase in the demo.
The slew of late-night premieres this week comes just over a week after the resolution of the WGA strike, which followed a tentative agreement reached by the guild and the AMPTP.
