The late night TV ratings are in for November 2025, and they show some mixed results. In the end, there is a win for late night TV as a whole, and we’re not going to see all the shows disappear any time soon.
We know The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is coming to an end in May 2026. There is something much bigger going on than the ratings, though, as the series continues to be the most-watched late night show, and November 2025 continues with that trend.
The way that Jimmy Kimmel Live! is winning is in the demo. And sure, this number matters greatly for the majority of shows, but the late night TV landscape is a little different — due to time and accessibility on YouTube.
The Late Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live take the top spots
Late Nighter has tracked the ratings for November 2025, and it’s clear that the two more popular shows are The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel Live!. The latter wins in the demo (18-49 year olds), with 294,000 viewers tuning in live (vs. 218,000 for Colbert). And yes, this is the one-night linear ratings! The Late Show takes the win in the total viewing audience on the night, with 2.7 million (vs. 2.4 million for Kimmel).
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon sits at the bottom for this particular timeslot, with the average audience averaging at 1.3 million across the month and the demo averaging at 198,000.
Now, there are some explanations for the dips throughout November, and that’s Thanksgiving. Fallon opted for an episode on Thanksgiving, and a lot of people probably weren’t going to tune into that, so it would affect the average ratings.
The Daily Show is sort of in the same timeslot — starting 35 minutes earlier than the main network shows — and saw both the demo and total audience numbers tick up. This series is on a cable network rather than a broadcast network, so doesn’t really compete with the other three shows, but it is a positive sign.
Now, FOX New’s Gutfield did beat all of them, but it airs at 10 p.m. ET/PT. It’s more of a primetime show than a late night show, so it’s not fair to compare with the main ones. It is a positive look at the state of late night TV.
It’s also important to note that the linear ratings are just part of the puzzle.
Late night TV isn’t going anywhere (yet)
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that late night TV will change, but it won’t disappear. After all Jimmy Kimmel Live is going to continue for at least another year, as Kimmel’s contract was extended until May 2027 with Disney.
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon also probably isn’t going anywhere, considering the hot commodity NBC views Fallon as. He is everywhere within the network, and shows no sign of slowing down.
While Colbert’s contract has come to an end and CBS will change late night TV, it’s probably not going to completely get rid of it. There has to be something for the network to continue battling it out with NBC and ABC.
It’ll be interesting to see how CBS fills its timeslot, but the linear ratings aren’t the only important factor for the networks. The YouTube views and delayed ratings are, so again, late night TV isn’t going anywhere.