Bell said in a statement that the timing was perfect to forge a new path that would build on his experience in news, sports and entertainment.
Latenight programming remains a tussle between NBC and CBS — with the former maintaining a slight edge in young viewers and CBS dominating the overall viewing picture.
With nearly three months of the TV season now in the books, latenight TV network programming still has CBS’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert in the overall top position. The CBS talk show is now averaging 3.7 million viewers for Nielsen live program plus same day/seven day time shifted viewing though Dec. 15. NBC’s Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon is at 2.7 million viewers. Fallon still leads among 18-49 viewers.
According to Nielsen data from May 25 to Aug. 13, Colbert is averaging a 0.53 rating in the key adults 18-49 demographic and 3.38 million viewers per episode. The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon is averaging a 0.66 rating and 2.59 million viewers for the same time period. At the conclusion of the standard September-May season, Colbert was averaging a 0.58 and 3.195 million viewers compared to Fallon’s 0.81 and 3.173 million. That means that Colbert has grown approximately 6% in total viewers.
The NBC show narrowly outperforms its CBS competition among total viewers, as the latter excludes Thursday and Friday repeats from the Nielsen race.
The final Tonight Show posts a 9.2 metered-market household rating, triple its season average and the best since 2009. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon hits a series high.