Late Night Ratings: 'Leno,' 'Fallon' Top February Sweep

Earlier 'Kimmel' posts big gains over year-ago period

By Andrea Morabito -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/7/2013 3:48:28 PM

NBC's primetime woes have not yet spread to late night, as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon both won their time periods during the recently completed February sweep.

Leno averaged 3.5 million total viewers according to live plus same day Nielsen data for the 28-night sweep, more than CBS' Late Show with David Letterman (3.3 million viewers) or ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live (2.5 million).

The race was closer in adults 18-49, where Leno was tops with a 0.8 rating and 1.02 million viewers. Letterman and Kimmel tied with a 0.7 demo rating, though CBS paced slightly ahead with 941,000 viewers to ABC's 913,000.

With the move to 11:35 p.m., Kimmel posted its largest sweeps audience ever. Compared to the February 2012 sweep, JKL improved 48% in total viewers and 33% among adults 18-49.

At 12:35 a.m., Late Night was first with 1.7 million total viewers and a 0.5 rating with adults 18-49 while CBS' Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and ABC's Nightline tied with 1.6 million total viewers and a 0.4 demo rating each.