The linear ratings are in for the last week of the late night shows of 2025. Two of the shows are almost neck-and-neck when it comes to the total audience, but there is one clear winner when it comes to the demo.
In the end, the ratings do mean that late night shows are still watched. They’re still needed, whatever you think of the hosts. This is more than just the hosts sharing their monologues, but it’s a chance for celebrities to share a little more about upcoming projects.
And yes, the celebrities often end up pulling people in. When Taylor Swift is on, you know that show will take the lead in all the numbers. So, how did the late night shows hold up in the last week of the year for new episodes? Late Nighter helped out by getting the numbers.
Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Late Show remain popular
The two most-watched shows were Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The two were almost neck-and-neck when it came to the total viewers, with The Late Show pulling in 2.34 million viewers and Jimmy Kimmel Live pulling in 2.33 million viewers. The latter was up 7% compared to the week before in the Live+3 data.
However, when it comes to the demo, Jimmy Kimmel Live is the winner. This is the 18–49 age range, which is traditionally more important due to the advertisers taking those numbers into account. Jimmy Kimmel Live was significantly ahead with 252,000 viewers, while The Late Show was behind with 181,000.
It does look like the younger audience is more interested in the ABC series even compared to the two NBC shows. The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon sat at 178,000 and Late Night with Seth Meyers sat at 133,000.
Now, it’s not exactly fair to compare the Seth Meyers show with the other three, as that airs at a much later time! That’s one to compare with Nightline on ABC, which was sitting at 132,000 in the demo, so the two are pretty close.
NBC shows are trailing CBS and ABC
It will be interesting to see how the late night ratings change after May 2026. Despite The Late Show being the most-watched show in total, CBS is still sticking with the decision to cancel it outright. This opens the door for NBC to score some extra viewers.
As of right now, the network is behind the other two. It pulled in just 1.31 million viewers during the last week of 2025, and that was with a huge Stranger Things push. However, that 178,000 demo rating was up an impressive 17%, suggesting that the younger audience was there for the Stranger Things interviews all week.
Late Night with Seth Meyers sat at 963,000 viewers, which was behind Nightline, which had 993,000 viewers. However, Late Night did see a 12% increase, which could link to how people were remaining tuned in after The Tonight Show with the Stranger Things push.
But it will be interesting to see the changes that come as CBS closes up shop. There is still no word on whether there will be a different type of late show after May 2026.