Colbert Wins Late Nights, Fallon Wins 18-49 Demo

The Trump-bashing “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” again drew more viewers than its NBC rival — the seventh straight week “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” finished No. 2 in the late-night TV wars, statistics out Tuesday revealed.

However, The NY Post reports  Fallon continued to draw a larger crowd among the coveted age 18-to-49 demographic — in fact, widening his lead in that demo for the week ended March 17, Nielsen reported.

Colbert, on CBS, averaged 3.18 million viewers per broadcast, while Fallon averaged 3.07 million viewers.

Colbert’s averages were based on a three-day week, as NCAA basketball preempted the show on Thursday and Friday.

“Late Show” average viewership during the week was 24 percent greater than the same three nights a year ago, CBS said.

Yet it was also down from 3.23 million the previous week — raising the possibility that Colbert’s schtick had hit its ceiling.

Fallon, which has gone much lighter on the political jokes, drew a 0.75 rating in the key demographic coveted by advertisers — versus 0.54 for Colbert, for a 0.21 rating advantage.
It was Fallon’s largest margin of victory since mid-January, and the third week in a row he widened his demo lead — excluding repeats.

Colbert had never drawn a larger total audience than Fallon until the week after Trump’s inauguration.