In late-night metered-market households Saturday night:

• Saturday Night Live, hosted by January Jones and featuring musical guest Black Eyed Peas (4.7/12 in metered-market households) dominated its time period.
• Saturday Night Live delivered the #1 rating of the night in the metered markets, topping all primetime telecasts on all major networks. In fact, SNL outscored every Saturday primetime non-sports telecast on every major network over the past five months (since June 6).

In its Monday premiere, TBS’ George Lopez show, “Lopez Tonight” averaged 1.7 million viewers on TBS (3.2 million total including the simulcast on TNT and truTV).    The simulcast across multiple networks was only for the premiere. On Tuesday, it dropped down to 1.4 million, Wednesday it hit a TBS high with 2 million viewers and Thursday it hit is low with 1.3 million. James Hibberd has some analysis on week 1 and suggests the show is holding up OK.

By way of comparison to what TBS was airing from 11p-12A last week:

Monday 11p : “My Name is Earl” (1.166 million)

Monday 11:30p “My Name is Earl” (981,000)

Tuesday 11p:  “Seinfeld” (931,000)

Tuesday 11:3op: “Seinfeld”  (1.045 million)

Wednesday 11P: Seinfeld (1.135 million)

Wednesday 11:30p Seinfeld (942,000)

Thursday 11p: “Seinfeld” (843,000)

Thursday 11:30p Seinfeld (926,000)

The good news is it easily bested 10+ year old “Seinfeld” reruns and  “My Name Is Earl” reruns  in a heavily promoted first week.   If  “Lopez Tonight”  improves or merely retains the margins it held over reruns in the first week a couple of months down the road, TBS will surely claim success.    But I wouldn’t be looking for any press releases from TBS declaring George Lopez the new king of late night.

Every week we see press releases from ABC, NBC and CBS touting their late night ratings. In theirs, ABC’s skilled PR team makes the comparison between Nightline’s ratings (which runs from 11:30p-12a) and The Tonight Show and Late Show ratings (which each run from 11:30p-12:30a).

Read the full story

via press release

Fringe Ratings Report: ABC Late-Night Programming

Week of November 2, 2009

Growing in Adults 18-49 for the 3rd Week in a Row, ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Draws is Largest Young Adult Audience Since Premiere Week

For the First Time Ever, “JKL” Outperforms “Fallon” for the Week in Adults 18-49, While Topping the NBC Program in Viewers by its Largest Margin Ever

“JKL” Betters “Ferguson” Among Adults 18-34 for the 2nd Time in 3 Weeks

With Guests Elizabeth Mitchell, Jesse Williams and Florence and the Machine,

“JKL’s” Thursday Telecast Attracts the Show’s Largest Audience Since June

Weekly National Ratings:

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via press release:

NBC LATE-NIGHT RATINGS RESULTS FOR THE WEEK OF NOV. 2-6

CONAN TIES ‘LATE SHOW’ FOR THE WEEK IN 18-49 RATING, WINS DECISIVELY IN 18-34

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via press release:

‘SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE’ MATCHES ITS TOP RATING THIS SEASON IN 18-49 AND HITS A NEW SEASON HIGH IN TOTAL VIEWERS

WITH HOST AND MUSICAL GUEST TAYLOR SWIFT, ‘SNL’ SCORES THE NIGHT’S #1 RESULTS IN 18-49 AND TOTAL VIEWERS, TOPPING ALL PRIMETIME PROGRAMS ON ALL MAJOR NETWORKS

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – November 12, 2009 – The November 7 telecast of “Saturday Night Live” has matched the show’s best adult 18-49 rating of the season thus far and set a new total-viewer high for the season to date, according to “live plus same day” viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research.

On November 7, “Saturday Night Live,” featuring Taylor Swift as host and musical guest, averaged a 2.8 rating, 11 share in adults 18-49 and 6.8 million viewers overall.  The 2.8 rating matches the show’s season high previously achieved with the October 3 edition, hosted by Ryan Reynolds and featuring musical guest Lady Gaga.

The November 7 “Saturday Night Live” delivered the #1 results of the night in adults 18-49 and total viewers, topping all primetime telecasts on all the major networks.  In fact, in adults 18-49, “SNL” outscored every Saturday non-sports primetime telecast on every major network in nearly three years (since November 25, 2006).

There was some spirited debate attached to my original post about the disappearance of Conan’s Tonight Show adults 18-49 lead over Letterman’s Late Show and whether it might be the start of a long term trend. That was seven weeks ago and the two shows are still neck and neck in the important adults 18-49 demo.

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via press release:

CBS’S “LATE SHOW with DAVID LETTERMAN” PLACES FIRST IN VIEWERS, ADULTS 18-49 AND ADULTS 25-54

“The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” is First in Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Claims First Ever Outright Win in Adults 18-49

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