Paul Drinkwater/NBCJay Leno, above with Jamie Foxx, and his longtime late night competitor, David Letterman, both saw their ratings, especially among younger viewers, drop sharply.1:14 p.m. | Updated The decline of television’s two big late-night stars was more noticeable than ever during television’s premiere week, as “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” and the “Late Show With David Letterman” were both beaten by ABC’s “Nightline” — a first during that week.
“Nightline” was up slightly from last year, increasing its viewership by 7 percent, but the story was in the falloff for both Mr. Leno on NBC and Mr. Letterman on CBS. The two late-night lions saw their audience, especially the younger segments of viewers, drop sharply.
Mr. Letterman lost a total 560,000 viewers from last year, a 15 percent decline; Mr. Leno lost 160,000, or 4 percent. But among the 18- to 49-year-old audience that many advertisers seek to reach, Mr. Leno was down even more, 20 percent — 270,000 viewers — while Mr. Letterman was down 16 percent, or 200,000 viewers. (Mr. Leno lost more viewers in the 18-49 category than he lost in total viewership because he added thousands of viewers over the age of 50 during the same period.)
As always, “Nightline,” which had 1.248 million viewers in the 18-to-49 group (to 1.049 million for Mr. Letterman and 1.065 million for Mr. Leno) benefits from being measured
as a half hour show against the late-night comedians’ hourlong shows. (Late-night shows always lose viewers as they go on because people are drifting off to bed.) But that hour or half-hour comparison did
not prevent the late-night entertainment shows from beating “Nightline” in premiere week in prior years.
What may be preventing that now, in NBC’s case anyway, is the lackluster performance of that network’s prime-time schedule.
Though ABC hardly showed formidable strength in the 10 p.m. hour (which usually helps the late-night ratings) it did have a few stronger-than-usual results in premiere week, including good ratings for the dramas “Castle” and “Revenge,” and an extended episode of “Grey’s Anatomy.”
CBS also had some relatively strong numbers for 10 p.m. shows, including “Hawaii Five-0,” “Unforgettable” and “C.S.I.,” though that didn’t seem to help Mr. Letterman. NBC, meanwhile, had finished third almost across the board at 10 p.m., with “The Playboy Club” on Monday night especially weak. Only “Dateline” on Friday gave Mr. Leno any real benefit from the 10 p.m. hour.
The one piece of good news for Mr. Letterman was how close he finished to Mr. Leno in the 18-to-49 audience. Both shows had a 0.8 rating, which is their lowest ever for a premiere week, but Mr. Letterman trailed Mr. Leno by only 16,000 viewers among that group. A year ago, he trailed by just under 100,000.
ABC’s success carried over to the show that follows “Nightline,” its own late-night entertainment show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” Mr. Kimmel had his second best premiere week ever, and was up 8 percent in total viewers (1.82 million this year vs. 1.69 million last year) and 11 percent in the 18-to-49 audience, (769,000 viewers to 695,000.)