Jimmy Kimmel Live Continues to Benefit One Half-Hour Earlier

HIGHER HUT LEVELS WORK IN THE ABC LATE NIGHT TALKER’S FAVOR

Moving up one half-hour has been beneficial to Jimmy Kimmel. In its third week at 11:35 p.m. ET, Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC rose to its second largest weekly audience ever with 2.85 million viewers for the week of January 21 (according to Nielsen). Comparably, Kimmel built from one week earlier by four percent in total viewers and two percent among adults 18-49 (956,000), with year-to-year gains (versus airing from 12:35-1:35 a.m.) of 68 percent in total viewers and 50 percent in the demo. Thursday’s telecast with Matt Damon rose to the late night talker’s most-watched episode ever, with 3.64 million viewers.

Competitively, The Tonight Show With Jay Leno on NBC was most-watched with 3.46 million viewers (+2 percent from one year earlier), followed by The Late Show with David Letterman at 3.17 million (-9). Leno was also first among adults 18-49 (1.05 million: -3 percent), with Letterman third at 888,000 in the demo (-14 percent).

Jimmy Kimmel lead-out Nightline, now at 12:35 a.m. ET, won the half-hour (opposite the first half of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on NBC and the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS) in both total viewers (1.76 million viewers) and adults 25-54 (785,000).