As The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Prepares To End, It’s Still Decimating The Other Late Night Competition (Mostly)

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The current TV lineup could be the last full year of traditional late-night talk shows from the major networks. With The Late Show ending, Stephen Colbert’s departure will leave a significant gap in CBS’s programming. While the situation with the show and its parent companies is complex and has drawn a lot of attention, it’s actually helping Colbert maintain a strong lead over his rivals, at least for now.

Recent data from Late Nighter shows that The Late Show was the most-watched late night program during the third quarter of 2025. It’s likely that the announcement of its cancellation in July led to increased viewership, and may have even contributed to the show winning its first Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show. Here’s a breakdown of how viewership numbers for July-September compared to the previous three months, looking at both the 11:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. time slots.

  • The Late Show with Stephen Colbert – 2.84 million avg. viewers (+17%); 260k 18-49 year-olds demographic (+19%)
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live! – 1.85 million avg viewers; 243k 18-49 demo
  • The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon – 1.23 million avg. viewers; 170k 18-49 demo
  • Late Night with Seth Meyers – 923k avg. viewers; 109k 19-49 demo
  • Nightline – 745k avg. viewers; 96k 18-49 demo

While total viewership isn’t the only way to measure a show’s success, the numbers for The Late Show clearly demonstrate its strong performance. Over a three-month period, Stephen Colbert consistently outpaced his competitors, averaging a million more viewers than the second-place show. In fact, he averaged twice as many viewers as Jimmy Fallon’s show on NBC.

While ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ still attracts a solid audience, its numbers weren’t as high as expected, which isn’t surprising given the show’s typical viewers. CBS generally appeals to an older demographic, and Colbert’s choice of guests and focus on political issues tend to resonate more with that age group than with younger people who often get their entertainment from platforms like TikTok. Although Colbert still drew more viewers in the 18-49 age range overall, they made up a much smaller portion of his total audience compared to the younger viewer bases of Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon.

Jimmy Kimmel likely saw a boost in viewers from wealthier households because of the reaction to his temporary suspension from ABC. This happened after he commented on an incident involving Charlie Kirk in mid-September. His first show back a week later had record-high ratings.

The Latest Late Night Numbers

The controversy surrounding Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension quickly faded, and things have been relatively calm in late-night television since, aside from Donald Trump recently asking for Seth Meyers to be fired. Despite a difficult personal time – the loss of his bandleader, Cleto Escobedo III, led to canceled shows – Kimmel still had a successful week starting November 9th.

Here’s how those numbers shook out, with Colbert facing dips from the prior week.

  • The Late Show – 2.15 million avg viewers; 172k demo
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live! – 1.8 million avg. viewers; 223k demo
  • The Tonight Show – 1.21 million avg. viewers; 141k. demo

Right now, Jimmy Kimmel is attracting the most important advertising viewers, and Stephen Colbert consistently has the largest overall audience. Jimmy Fallon is still appearing on television every night as well.

Despite not having the highest ratings among young adults, Gutfeld! on Fox News had the largest overall average audience with 2.78 million viewers. It didn’t quite reach the 189,000-viewer demo rating achieved by Kimmel, however.

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2025-11-25 22:09