'THE TONIGHT SHOW,' 'LATE NIGHT' Post Third Quarter Wins

"The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" and "Late Night with Seth Meyers" have dominated late-night results for the third quarter of 2014.

Fallon outscored the combined 18-49 ratings of ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman," while Meyers topped Letterman despite starting an hour later.

Fallon concluded the third quarter with his most-watched week in nearly six months and Meyers followed with his top total-viewer week in nearly five months. Fallon's 4.224 million viewers for the week of Sept. 15-19 was his highest weeklong average since March 24-28 (4.306 million) and Meyers' 1.687 million was his best since the week of April 28-May 2 (1.697 million).

Note that CBS's Thursday shows were delayed last week by an NFL overrun and are excluded. Friday's "Kimmel" and "Late Night" were encores.

Fallon delivered the top "Tonight Show" third quarter in six years in 18-49 and total viewers, with a 1.18 rating in 18-49 being the show's best average for the quarter since a 1.25 in 2008. Its 3.927 million is "Tonight's" best third-quarter result since the 2008 average of 4.641 million persons.

Fallon's 1.18 rating in adults 18-49 for the quarter topped the combined 1.01 of Kimmel (0.57) and Letterman (0.44). Meyers' 0.50 beat the 0.44 of Letterman in the earlier 11:35 p.m. hour and brought "Late Night" within .07 (seven hundredths) of a rating point of "Kimmel's 0.57. It also outscored CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (0.28) by a 79% margin head to head in the 12:35 a.m. ET hour.

Fallon and Meyers delivered bigger audiences than their ABC and CBS time-period competition in every key ratings measure - adults, men and women 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54, plus total viewers.

At 1:35 a.m. ET, "Last Call with Carson Daly" averaged a 0.29 rating in adults 18-49 for the third quarter to top CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (0.28) despite starting an hour later.

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