“The Late Show” Wins Late Night’s First Week Back on Air with an Average of 2.793 Million Viewers (Live Plus 3-Day), Beating Its Closest Competition by +1.01 Million Viewers

Monday, Oct. 2 Delivered 3.109 Million Viewers, “The Late Show’s” Highest Monday Average Since January and the Highest 3-Day Playback (+948,000) Since Jan. 6, 2021

• THE LATE SHOW wins late night’s first week back on air (week of Oct. 2) with a live plus 3-day viewer average of 2.793 million, beating its closest competition by +1.01 million viewers.

  • This is THE LATE SHOW’s highest weekly average since the week of April 3 (2.819m viewers).

  • THE LATE SHOW beat NBC’s “The Tonight Show” by +97% (vs. 1.419m) and ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” by +57% (1.784m)

  • In 3-day lift, THE LATE SHOW’s +809,000 viewers in 3-day playback is the highest for any week in over five years (best since +833,000 viewers the week of Feb. 19, 2018).

Note: Live plus 3-day ratings are available through Thursday, Oct. 5. Live+SD ratings are available through Friday, Oct. 6. Comps based on Most Current Data (Live+3/Live+SD).

Monday, Oct. 2 Highlights

• THE LATE SHOW’s first show back following a five-month break, featuring guest Neil deGrasse Tyson and a performance by LATE SHOW bandleader Louis Cato, delivered 3.109 million with delayed viewing.

  • This is THE LATE SHOW’s highest Monday average since Jan. 9 with guest Tom Hanks (3.478m) and its best performance on any night since Tuesday, April 4 with guests Lin-Manuel Miranda and John Kander (3.191m).

• Monday, Oct. 2 also delivered +948,000 viewers in 3-day playback, the show’s highest 3-day lift for any night since Wednesday Jan. 6, 2021, the day of the insurrection, with guests Senator Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (+1.112m).

  • This is also the highest 3-day lift for any Monday in over three years (best since +988,000 on Sept. 14, 2020, featuring Bob Woodward and Luke Combs).

Tuesday, Oct. 3 Highlights

• Tuesday, Oct. 3, with guest John Oliver and a performance by boygenius, drew 2.951 million viewers (Live+3), the show’s most-watched Tuesday since the aforementioned April 4 broadcast.

• In 3-day playback, THE LATE SHOW added +837,000 viewers on Tuesday, Oct. 3, the highest lift for any Tuesday since Prince Harry’s appearance last winter (+942,000 viewers on Jan. 10).

Wednesday, Oct. 4 Highlights

• THE LATE SHOW delivered another big night on Wednesday, Oct. 4, featuring an interview with Anderson Cooper and a performance by Japanese Breakfast, with 2.821 million live plus 3-day viewers, its best performance for a Wednesday night since Jan. 18 featuring guest Trevor Noah (2.834m).

• Wednesday, Oct. 4 saw a lift of +800,000 viewers in 3-day playback, the highest for any Wednesday since the day of the Jan. 6 insurrection (+1.112m on Jan. 6, 2021, as noted above).

Thursday, Oct. 5 Highlights

• THE LATE SHOW drew 2.302 million live plus 3-day viewers on Thursday, Oct. 5, with guests Bob Odenkirk and Fortune Feimster, winning the night.

YouTube and Social

• Each of last week’s monologues (Monday, Oct. 2 through Thursday, Oct. 5) netted over 2 million views on YouTube.

• THE LATE SHOW ranked #1 in total video views and #2 in total social interactions during the week of Oct. 2.

• The return of THE LATE SHOW drove 843 million potential impressions* and 10.3k mentions on average in its first week – up in potential impressions (+43%) and mentions (+45%) compared to last year’s premiere week average (590m potential impressions and 7.1k mentions).

Source: Nielsen NPM, 10/2/23-10/5/23, Live+3; Paramount Internal Data, 10/2/23-10/5/23, 3-Day Streaming Playback; Emplifi, 10/2/23-10/6/23, Daily Minutes Viewed across YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok.

Talkwalker SCR (excludes TikTok and Instagram Stories & Video Views)NetBase Potential Social Impressions and Mentions, 10/2/23-10/5/23.

*Potential Impressions are the estimated number of people who might have viewed posts related to this topic. NetBase calculates potential impressions based on followers/fans of original posts and followers/fans of engagements.

Press Contact:

Lauren Kamm lauren.kamm@paramount.com