Stephen Colbert wins the crown for late-night ratings for season 2018-19
Stand down men, we have a new night king!
The 2018-2019 season ends on Wednesday and CBS's 'Late Show With Stephen Colbert' is all set to claim the number 1 ranking in the late night category among adults 18-49 for the season.
This will be marking the show's first season-long win over NBC's 'Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon' since Colbert took over as host of the show in 2015. It is also the first win for 'The Late Show' since 1994-95, in the early years of David Letterman's tenure.
Interestingly, for the third consecutive season, 'The Late Show' is also set to finish first in total viewers.
Colbert first took over the 18-49 lead early in March by merely a hundredth of a point - averaging 16,000 viewers in the demographic at that point in time. This lead stayed stable through the end of the season and as of May 17, 'The Late Show' was averaging 677,000 viewers in the demographic (a 0.52 rating) to 659,000 (0.51) for 'Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon'. In the third place is ABC's 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' at a 0.38 rating, which equates to about 486,000 viewers in the demographic.
Towards the end of the last season, 2017-2018, 'The Tonight Show' had a lead of about 72,000 viewers in the 18-49 demographic, and so, the turnaround for 'The Late Show' year to year is at 90,000 viewers.
All three 11.35 pm shows are down year after year in the demographic - this is consistent with earlier points in the season.
'The Tonight Show' had fallen 25 per cent from the same point in 2018. At the same time, 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' is down by 19 per cent and 'The Late Show' by 12 per cent.
To give you context viewership-wise, 'The Late Show' garnered 3.81 million viewers, which trumps 'The Tonight Show' standing at 2.44 millions and 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' at 2.04 million. But Colbert has taken the competition ahead all by himself - from 1.2 million to 1.37 million.
At 12.35 am, NBC's 'Late Night With Seth Meyers' (a 0.3 rating in adults 18-49 and a 1.45 million viewership) remains in front of CBS' 'Late Late Show with James Corden' (which has a 0.23 rating with 1.35 million viewership).
