News: "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" A Hit

NBC's late-night lineup dominated the week of March 2-6 over all cable and broadcast competition, with the debut week of "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" topping the opening-week results for rival late-night personalities Craig Ferguson, Jimmy Kimmel, Craig Kilborn and Tom Snyder. "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" also registered big numbers last week, matching its highest 18-49 rating in more than a year.

The opening week of "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" averaged a 0.9 rating, 5 share in adults 18-49 and 2.4 million viewers overall, generating increases versus the first weeks of other network late-night programs, including the January 3-7, 2005 premiere of CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (0.8 rating in 18-49, 2.0 million viewers overall), the January 27-31, 2003 debut of ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (0.8 in 18-49, 1.7 million viewers overall), the March 30-April 2, 1999 premiere of CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn" (0.7 in 18-49, 1.5 million viewers overall) and the January 9-13, 1995 debut of "Late Late Show with Tom Snyder" (0.8 in 18-49, 1.7 million viewers overall).

Jimmy Fallon won the time period over Ferguson and Kimmel on five of five nights in 18-49 and total viewers, including a head-to-head win over Kimmel in the 12:30-1 a.m. ET half-hour on Monday despite the guest appearance on Kimmel of Jason Mesnick ("The Bachelor"). For the week, Fallon out-delivered Ferguson and Kimmel in every key ratings category: adults, men and women 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54, plus total viewers. Versus NBC's "live plus same day" "Late Night" averages for the season, Fallon was up last week by 26 percent in 18-49 and 21 percent in total viewers.

"Late Night" ruled the time period over all cable and broadcast competition, topping its closest broadcast rival, "Late Late Show," by a 60 percent margin in adult 18-49 viewers and by a 25 percent margin in total viewers. Jimmy was even more dominant over the cable competition, defeating his closest cable rival in the time period, Nick at Nite, by 70 percent in adults 18-49 (1.248 million viewers vs. 733,000) and 54 percent in total viewers (2.363 million vs. 1.531 million).

In the younger half of the target 18-49 demo, adults 18-34, Fallon more than doubled Ferguson (594,000 viewers vs. 257,000) and also easily out-delivered CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman" (487,000), despite starting an hour later than "Late Show."

The Monday premiere of "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" (1.3/7 in 18-49, 2.9 viewers overall) also generated better results than the opening nights of other network late-night personalities, including Ferguson (0.8 rating in 18-49, 2.1 million viewers overall), Kimmel (0.6 in 18-49, 1.4 million viewers overall), Kilborn" (0.8 in 18-49, 1.5 million viewers overall) and Snyder (0.8 in 18-49, 1.9 million viewers overall).

The Monday debut of Fallon scored NBC's highest 18-49 rating for a Monday "Late Night" telecast since February 28, 2005 and also out-rated that night's telecasts of Letterman, Ferguson and Kimmel.

It was also a strong week for "Tonight," whose 1.5 rating in adults 18-49 matched Jay's best since the week of February 18-22, 2008. Jay leads Letterman for the week and the season in every key ratings category: adults, men and women 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54, plus total viewers.

Season-to date, Jay is stretching his leads over Letterman this season vs. last, establishing a 24 percent margin over Letterman in adult 18-49 viewers, up from a 22 percent margin at this point last season, and a 29 percent advantage in total viewers, up from last year's 25 percent.

Also during the March 2-6 week, "Last Call with Carson Daly" matched its highest adult 18-49 rating, a 0.5, since the week of October 15-19, 2007. In the valuable adult 18-34 category, "Last Call" tied CBS's Ferguson with a 0.4 rating for the week. On Monday, "Last Call" scored a 0.6 rating in 18-49, the show's highest Monday result since October 27, 2008.

Source: NBC

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