It seems that the ratings for "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" got low enough the past week that "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" got more viewers if the ratings are to be believed. Perhaps The Late Show's "sharp, anti-Trump humor" launched Colbert to the top of the late night ratings and was reigning supreme since the U.S. President's inauguration — that is, until last week when Fallon took the lead.
A slump for Stephen Colbert after months in the lead
The lead was not that substantial, but it was a lead nonetheless. According to rating authority Nielsen and as reported by The Washington Post, Jimmy Fallon's "The Tonight Show" (airing on NBC) got an average of 2.66 million viewers last week, while Stephen Colbert's "The Late Show" (airing on CBS) got 2.62 million.
This may be considered not too much difference in terms of average viewer count; however, as mentioned earlier, this is the first time something like this happened for months so that things might be looking up for Fallon. Still, the comedian from NBC is not too confident about this "fluke."
The Washington Post cited a number of reasons why the ratings might have shifted.
For one, reports state that NBC had the stronger primetime lineup last week. CBS merely aired reruns for its shows, while NBC was pumping out episodes for its powerhouses "America's Got Talent" and "World of Dance."
Speaking of re-runs, ratings for the Thursday and Friday airing of Stephen Colbert's "The Late Show" were excluded from the rating reviews and were not counted. The reason? They were reruns! Yes, CBS aired reruns of Colbert's late-night humor, in two consecutive days no less!
Now, while this isn't necessarily a bad thing — I'm sure no one would complain about a Colbert rerun now and then — it sure affected the ratings. CBS believes that they could have won the week, too, if only they didn't air those reruns and the ratings for those days were taken into account.
How did the other networks fare?
Meanwhile, other TV networks were reviewed as well.
FOX was "nearly invisible" in the prime-time ratings. They still have "So You Think You Can Dance?" up and running, but it seems even that cannot compete with NBC's "Wold of Dance."
FOX News Channel, on the other hand, is a different story. It did well enough to be dubbed last week's "most popular cable network," averaging 2.4 million viewers during primetime. ESPN came to little ways behind them, at 1.57 million, and then followed by MSNBC, who had 1.49 million viewers last week.