It's all about the ratings! A Snapshot of Evening TV

Ratings, ratings, ratings! It's all about the ratings and now that it has been a full quarter of the year, it's a great time to look to see how this year's shows are doing.

There has been a lot of changes in evening TV including Jay Leno's farewell to The Tonight Show and its move to New York City with Jimmy Fallon as its new host. SNL brings on a new black female cast member and Seth Meyers takes Fallon's seat in Late Night. These changes were sure to bring a change of viewership and were put in place in hopes of more positive reviews and ratings, but how have these changes in TV fared so far? Let's take a look at the numbers:

The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon is seeing very favorable numbers with a 3-week high rating of 1.35 in adults 18-35. Compared to last year's numbers with Jay Leno, this season (since February 17th) has seen a total of 5.395 million viewers where last year, during the same time period, the show saw 3.311 million viewers. Fallon is off to a great start as the new face of the Tonight Show and bringing back seasoned guests like Bill Cosby and Joan Rivers (who is back after a 25 year ban from the show) is keeping audiences happy.

Now let's visit Fallon's old stomping grounds, Late Night. With Seth Meyers taking the seat of the 12:35 time slot, the show is seeing significant gains in viewership as well. In just it's fourth week, the show's ratings are up 36% from exactly a year ago and it's viewership has risen by 16% with 1.854 million viewers. American audiences of late night television aren't afraid of change, and it seems that these new shifts were what these late time slots needed to boost the numbers!

While these talk shows are seeing gains in audience viewership, SNL this season has not been so lucky despite changes to the cast and new hosts. After last night's show, with 2nd time host Louis C.K., the numbers were the 2nd lowest in it's 5 episode run since the beginning of 2014. However, despite the show's low numbers, SNL managed to trump the Big 4 networks and was the top telecast of the night. In Nielsen’s 56 metered market, the show averaged a 4.0/10 in household results and a 2.1/9 in adults 18-49 in the 25 markets with Local People Meters. 

So what do these numbers say? American audiences are supportive of change and welcoming of the fresh faces of late night television... oh, and that hosts Louis C.K. and Lena Dunham are no Alec Baldwin!

Sources:
TV Impulse 
TV By the Numbers