NBC's Late Night Returns With Dominant Wins in Time Slot

By: Caryn Robbins Aug. 30, 2016

NBC's late-night lineup has returned from its Olympic break with a dominant performance in ratings results for the week of Aug. 22-26.

"The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" generated its most-watched week since June 13-17, "Late Night with Seth Meyers" scored its best Nielsens since the week of March 21-25 and an encore week of "Last Call with Carson Daly" delivered the show's highest 18-49 average since Jan. 25-29.

Fallon and Meyers both outrated their ABC and CBS time-period competition for the week in every key measure. Note that Friday's "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," "Jimmy Kimmel Live," "Late Night" and "The Late Late Show with James Corden" were encores

Meyers outrated Kimmel (0.45 vs. 0.42) and nearly matched Colbert (0.46) despite starting an hour later than both shows.

Daly's week of rebroadcasts (0.30 in 18-49) outrated "Nightline" (0.27) and "Late Late Show" (0.28), despite starting an hour later.

Fallon's 3.177 million average viewership for the week was his highest since June 13-17 (3.243 million).

Meyers' 0.45 in 18-49 and 1.514 million viewers overall were his highest since March 21-25 (0.45 in 18-49, 1.559 million viewers overall) and equaled his 18-49 high since Feb. 29-March 4 (0.48).

Daly's 0.30 was his top 18-49 rating since Jan. 25-29 (0.30) and matched his best since Jan. 18-22 (0.32), while his 870,000 viewers overall was a high since March 28-April 1 (887,000).