Based on National Live + Same Day Ratings: During the week of June 11, 2012, ABC turned in its 2nd-most-watched week in late-night this season, while scoring its best number among Adults 18-49. In fact, this week marked ABC’s strongest young adult performance in late-night in 3-1/2 years – since the week of 11/3/08. Together, Nightline and Jimmy Kimmel Live form ABC’s winning late-night strategy of airing news and entertainment programming. ABC stood as the #1 network in late-night in both Total Viewers and Adults 18-49, marking its 20th win in the 39 weeks of the season and claiming the most number of victories in late-night on both Nielsen measures. Late-night’s most-watched network for the 4th week running, ABC increased its leads over CBS to 31% and NBC to 20%, from 17% and 2%, respectively, the prior week. ABC also ranked as the #1 network in late-night in Adults 18-49 for the 10th week running, beating CBS (+73%) and NBC (+68%) by its largest margins ever.
For the week, ABC’s Nightline finished as late-night’s #1 program in all 3 target demos: Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49. Nightline has taken the top spot in late-night in all 3 measures in 11 of the last 12 weeks. Hitting multi-month highs across-the-board, Nightline scored its strongest performance in Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 in 5 months and best Adults 18-49 number in 7 months – since w/o 1/16/12 and w/o 11/21/11, respectively. In fact, it was the late-night program’s 2nd-highest Adults 18-49 audience of the season. Nightline has taken the #1 position in 27 weeks in Total Viewers, 32 weeks in Adults 25-54 and 31 weeks in Adults 18-49 of the 39 weeks of the season to date. Nightline’s Friday telecast (6/15/12), featuring a segment on Nik Wallenda, stood as late-night’s most-watched telecast of the week. In addition, Nightline’s Tuesday airing (6/12/12) ranked as the top late-night telecast of the week in Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49. In fact, in Adults 18-49, it was the ABC program’s top performance in nearly 4 years (since 11/4/08) and best late-night telecast in over 2 years (since a The Tonight Show airing on 1/22/10). 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 all 3 Nielsen measures.
During the week, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live jumped over the prior week by 20% in Total Viewers to mark its biggest-ever summertime audience. JKL also surged week to week by 46% in Adults 18-49 to deliver its best performance in nearly 5 years – since the week of 10/22/07. ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live stood as the #1 broadcast talk show in late-night during the week in Adults 18-49. Despite the later time period, ABC’s JKL (M-F 12am) beat NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (M-F 11:35pm) by 2% in Adults 18-49 during the week, marking JKL’s first-ever weekly victory over the NBC late-night program. Again despite its later start time, ABC’s JKL defeated CBS’ The Late Show with David Letterman (M-F 11:35pm) by 14% in Adults 18-49. ABC’s JKL led NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (M-F 12:35am) by 22% in Total Viewers and a best-ever 54% in Adults 18-49, marking JKL’s 12th consecutive win over the NBC late-night program in both viewers and young adults. ABC’s JKL outperformed CBS’ The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (M-F 12:35am) by an impressive 51% in Total Viewers, drawing a larger overall audience than the CBS program in 38 of the 39 weeks of the season. In addition, JKL nearly doubled the Adult 18-49 delivery of Ferguson (+97%), marking its largest-ever lead over the CBS program. Similar to ABC’s Nightline, which featured a segment on Nik Wallenda on Friday (6/15/12), JKL also delivered a strong performance on the night, as Friday’s telecast posted the show’s most-watched repeat on any night in over 3 years – since Tuesday, 5/19/09.
(source: ABC)
