Leno & Fallon Take Holiday Week in Late Night

"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" have dominated the broadcast competition during the disrupted holiday week of Dec. 30-Jan. 3.

Both programs delivered bigger audiences than their ABC and CBS time-period rivals in every key ratings category - adults, men and women, 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54, plus total viewers.

The week featured record results Tuesday night for "NBC's New Year's Eve with Carson Daly" (3.2 rating/11 share in adults 18-49, 9.5 million viewers overall), which matched its highest adult 18-49 rating in its nine years on the air (a 3.2 was previously achieved in 2009) and set a new record in total viewers (topping the prior record of 9.3 million in 2009).

"NBC's New Year's Eve with Carson Daly" was the only 11 or 11:30 p.m. Tuesday telecast on ABC, NBC or FOX to grow versus last year in 18-49. Fox's "New Year's Eve Live" was down by 6% (with a 1.7 rating vs. last year's 1.8) and ABC's "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2013" was down 8% (7.1 vs. 7.7). In total viewers, the FOX telecast decreased by 10% (4.4 million vs. 4.9 million) while the ABC program was up 3% (22.8 million vs. 22.2 million).

All regular late-night programs on ABC, CBS and NBC were in rebroadcast last week except "Nightline." Some Tuesday and all Wednesday programming was either pre-empted or excluded due to the New Year's holiday.

Season to date, "Tonight" is off to its biggest start 15 weeks into a new TV season in three years in 18-49 viewers and total viewers. Fallon is delivering his biggest 18-49 audience 15 weeks into the season in three years and his top total-viewer average in the five years he's been hosting "Late Night."

Versus the first 15 weeks of the year-ago season, Leno is up 8% in both 18-49 viewers (with 1.132 million vs. 1.053 million) and total viewers (3.820 million vs. 3.546 million). Fallon is up 16% in 18-49 viewers (792,000 vs. 681,000) so far this season and up 14% in total viewers (1.947 million vs. 1.714 million).

At 1:35 a.m. ET, "Last Call with Carson Daly" is also delivering sizable gains versus the first 15 weeks of last season, up 19% in 18-49 viewers (436,000 vs. 366,000) and up 11% in total viewers (972,000 vs. 874,000).

"Tonight" has now delivered bigger 18-49 audiences than "Late Show" for the last 59 weeks in a row and topped "Kimmel" for 48 of their 52 head-to-head weeks. In total viewers, Leno has out-delivered "Late Show" for 63 weeks in a row and "Kimmel" for 52 of 52 weeks.

Fallon has now generated bigger 18-49 audiences than "Late Late Show" for 64 of the last 65 weeks and prevailed in total viewers for 61 of the last 63 weeks. Versus "Nightline" in their head-to-head half-hour, Fallon has outdelivered the ABC series for 52 of 52 weeks in viewers 18-49 and 47 of 49 weeks in total viewers.

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