ABC wins the week in late-night

During the week of May 14, 2012, ABC ranked as the #1 network in late-night in Adults 18-49 for the 6th week running, leading CBS by 3% and NBC by 13%. Together, Nightline and Jimmy Kimmel Live form ABC’s winning late-night strategy of airing news and entertainment programming.

For the week, ABC’s Nightline extended its streak as the #1 program in late-night to 8 straight weeks in all target demos: Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49. Nightline has finished as the week’s top program in late-night in all 3 measures in 11 of the last 12 weeks. Furthermore, Nightline has taken the #1 position in 24 weeks in Total Viewers, 28 weeks in Adults 25-54 and in 27 weeks in Adults 18-49 of the 35 weeks of the season to date. ABC’s Nightline owned the top broadcast of the week in late-night with its Wednesday telecast (5/16/12) across each of the target demos: Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49. In fact, Nightline has owned the top telecast of the week in each of the last 4 weeks versus all original competition. Season to date, Nightline ranks #1 in late-night among Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49, ahead of both NBC’s The Tonight Show and CBS’ The Late Show. This marks the 2nd straight season that the ABC program is taking the top spot in overall viewers and Adults 25-54.

During the week, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live stood as the #3 talk show in late-night in Total Viewers, behind only NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and CBS’ The Late Show with David Letterman. ABC’s JKL (M-F 12am) topped NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (M-F 12:35am) in both Total Viewers (+6%) and Adults 18-49 (+5%) for the 8th week in a row. JKL drew a larger overall audience than the NBC program on 4 of the 5 days of the week: Tuesday (+9%), Wednesday (+12%), Thursday (+8%) and Friday (+3%). In fact, on Tuesday and Friday, JKL’s repeat telecasts beat Fallon’s original telecasts. ABC’s JKL outperformed CBS’ The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (M-F 12:35am) by 13% in Total Viewers and by 21% in Adults 18-49, attracting a larger overall audience than the CBS program in all but one week this season. JKL beat Ferguson on 4 of 5 days in both viewers and young adults. In fact, all 3 repeat telecasts of JKL during the week (Monday, Tuesday and Thursday) outperformed original telecasts of Ferguson. Season to date, ABC’s JKL is building its overall audience through the same weeks last year by 3% in Total Viewers, and is on track to generate its most-watched season in 5 years – since 2006-07. In fact, JKL is the only late-night broadcast talk show to grow year over year in Total Viewers. ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live is the #3 broadcast talk show in late-night in Total Viewers this season, outdrawing both NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and CBS’ The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

(source: ABC)