Jimmy Fallon probably wishes that NBC had “Thursday Night Football,” and not CBS.
Last night, following a largely watched NFL Kickoff Game that aired on NBC as part of its “Sunday Night Football” package, Fallon’s “Tonight Show” topped his CBS and ABC competition combined in the key 18-49 demographic.
Of course, tune-in was largely boosted by Patriots-Steelers carryover, causing the reigning late-night leader to be pushed back nearly an hour.
“The Tonight Show” scored a 1.52 demo rating and 4.3 million total viewers, despite being delayed to 12:27 a.m. ET “The Late Show” had a 0.82 rating and 3.9 million viewers, while “Jimmy Kimmel Live” received a 0.49 and 2.2 million viewers. The latter talkers were in their normal 11:35 p.m. ET hour-long time slot.
Despite finishing runner-up in both the main demo and in total eyeballs on his third night in the new gig, Colbert can rest assured that the NFL on Thursday nights will be boosting him going forward, and not Fallon. Sorry, Kimmel, you don’t even get one game over on ABC.
Plus, Colbert actually rose from his second night to his third, up 6 percent in the main demo and 8 percent in total viewers on Thursday.
Colbert’s “Late Show” debut had easily topped Tuesday, but Fallon then claimed Wednesday thanks to a visit from Justin Timberlake. Fallon has Donald Trump on tonight, so good luck, other guys.