“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” went out on a literal excessive be aware.
Thursday evening’s collection finale was the most-watched weeknight episode of Colbert’s eleven-year tenure on the present, based on in a single day Nielsen ratings.
Colbert and co. averaged 6.a74 million viewers, even beating his first episode as host again in 2015, which averaged 6.55 million viewers.
The ratings outcomes have to be bittersweet for Colbert because it wasn’t his option to log off. CBS determined final summer season to cancel the present, citing monetary pressures evident throughout the late-night TV panorama.
Late-night discuss exhibits like “The Late Show” have been shedding viewers for years in an more and more fragmented media surroundings. Many followers who used to look at at 11:35 p.m. merely catch up in a while YouTube or by way of social media.
In the primary quarter of 2026, “The Late Show” averaged about 2.7 million viewers a evening, based on CBS.
But Colbert’s finale had all of the markings of big-event TV. His two predominant rivals, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel and NBC’s Jimmy Fallon, each opted to air repeat episodes on Thursday evening, realizing most eyes can be on Colbert’s present. And Kimmel strongly inspired his viewers to flip over to CBS for one evening solely.
The sendoff ended with a huge efficiency of Colbert singing “Hello Goodbye” with ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, alongside Elvis Costello, Louis Cato and Jon Batiste.
So it’s not essentially stunning that the ultimate episode of “The Late Show” set a ratings record.
Still, it’s a hanging end result, particularly because it was an extra-long episode, which meant viewers stayed up even later than standard to see it by means of.
The ratings record comes with some caveats: Colbert reached greater than 20 million viewers for a particular Sunday episode after the Super Bowl in 2016; and “The Late Show” routinely drew bigger audiences through the David Letterman period, earlier than YouTube and different platforms supplied folks infinite viewing choices.
Letterman’s farewell episode in 2015 scored 13.7 million viewers.
Going ahead, TV analysts have predicted that Kimmel and Fallon will take up a few of Colbert’s standard viewers now that “The Late Show” has ended.
CBS received’t try to recreate Colbert’s present. The substitute, a roundtable comedy discuss present referred to as “Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen,” bears little resemblance to “The Late Show.”
“Comics Unleashed” largely avoids topical humor as a result of the episodes are designed to be replayed later. As a end result, the present lacks the political commentary that has come to outline a lot of Colbert’s run.
It presently airs after “The Late Show” at 12:35 a.m. and averages about 1.1 million viewers.
Now that “Comics Unleashed” is shifting to 11:35 p.m., one other present made by Allen’s manufacturing firm, “Funny You Should Ask,” is shifting into the late-late time slot.
Crucially for CBS, the time intervals shall be instantly worthwhile for the community. Allen has paid to lease the airtime by means of a “time buy,” and he would recoup his prices by promoting promoting through the exhibits.
“I want to bring people together using comedy,” Allen mentioned on “CBS Mornings” this week.