Leno Dives, ‘Nightline’ Scores in Q2 Late-Night War

Leno had the highest ratings and most viewers but also saw the biggest declines compared to last year

The late-night television war is heating up — and the battle is not just between CBS'  the "Late Show with David Letterman" and NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

Throw ABC's "Nightline" in there, too.

With second-quarter Nielsen ratings numbers released on Thursday, each show was spinning its position heavily.

While "Leno" still had the highest ratings and most viewers in second quarter, it also saw the biggest declines from second quarter last year.

"Letterman" made up some ground but saw second quarter ratings declines also — just significantly less than "Leno."

It was "Nightline" that showed ratings gains over last year and made up more ground percentage-wise on "Leno" than "Letterman" did.

The "Letterman" show crowed that it produced its best second-quarter ratings against NBC's "Tonight" since 1995.

But NBC said "Leno" still won every key demo during the quarter — and since he returned as host of the show on March 1, he's won a preponderance of the nights among adults 18-49 and viewers.

"Nightline" pointed out that "Letterman's" gains on "Leno" were more about "Leno's" audience declines than "Letterman's" audience gains.

While Leno lost 21 percent of his second-quarter viewers compared to last year, and with Letterman losing 7 percent of his, "Nightline" pointed out that it grew its viewership in second quarter by 2 percent.

In 18-49 viewership, Leno declined by 33 percent and Letterman dropped by 7 percent, but "Nightline" grew by 3 percent.

And "Nightline" pointed out that both Leno and Letterman posted their lowest 25-54 second quarter deliveries in 18 years, with "Leno" also posting its lowest viewer totals since 1992, and Letterman its lowest since 1993.

It was the first time "Nightline" beat "Letterman" in the second quarter in both viewers and adults 25-54 since 2000.

But NBC said the situation is simple — that "Leno" is still number one.

"Despite the events of the past year and Jay's nine-month absence from the timeslot, he's returned in a solid number one position in the time period," an NBC official told TheWrap.

The NBC official also pointed out that some of the sizable second quarter ratings decline by "Tonight" was a result of the year-ago second quarter including Leno's final show as host, and some of the show's higher-rated closing weeks with Leno, leading up to his departure. It also included Conan O'Brien's debut as show host and some high-rated opening weeks. An appearance by President Obama on "Tonight" last year in second quarter also delivered strong ratings.
Here are the second quarter viewer numbers:

                                                    Viewers                  Adults 18-49                 Adults 25-54
ABC "Nightline"                           3.7 million +2%       1.3 million +3%              1.6 million +6%
CBS "Late Show"                        3.3 million -7%        1.1 million -7%               1.5 million -3%
NBC "Tonight"                             4.0 million -21%      1.4 million -33%             1.7 million -27%

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