Nolte: Late-Night Talk Shows Suffer Major Ratings Losses Without Trump

late night talk
Paul Drinkwater/Getty Images/Vince Bucci/AP Images

The far-left, late-night talk shows are suffering some serious ratings losses, which probably has more than a little to do with President Trump leaving office.

As you read through the numbers below, keep this number in mind: 6.3 million. During the 1986-87 television season, with nearly 100 million fewer people in the country, that was the number of viewers Johnny Carson averaged throughout the entire 1986-87 television season.

Season-to-date average audience size…

  • Late Show with Steven Colbert 2.9 million viewers
  • Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon: 1.5 million viewers
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live! 1.8 million

Altogether, in a country with 330 million people (as opposed to 240 million in 1986), those three left-wing losers cannot pull in as many average nightly viewers as Johnny Carson did in 1986.

And their numbers are falling:

Season to date, Colbert is averaging 2.915 million total viewers (down 16%) and 425,000 viewers (-20%) in the key demo. Jimmy Fallon’s “Tonight Show” is averaging 1.533 million total viewers (down 21%) and 343,000 viewers (-28%) in the key demo. “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” has brought in 1.800 million total viewers (down 9%) and 344,000 viewers (-21%) in the demo.

Over on the ironically titled Comedy Channel, the insufferable Trevor Noah’s The Daily Show is “averaging 905,000 total viewers (down 11% from last year) nightly. Of those, 301,000 come from the key demo, which is -21% from the previous year.”

Somehow Daily Show host Trevor Noah is attracting fewer viewers than his predecessor, ratings bomb Jon Stewart.

Per TheWrap, Conan O’Brien’s audience, even as he prepares to leave the air this week, “has averaged just 282,000 total viewers per episode, according to Nielsen, with 132,000 of them coming from the important adults 18-49 demographic.” That’s a “29% [drop] in total viewers and 36% in the main demo.”

All by himself, with nearly 100 million fewer people in his potential audience, Johnny Carson pulled in more viewers than Colbert. Fallon and Kimmel combined.

Greg Gutfeld’s late-night show, Gutfeld!, which airs on Fox News, is right in the mix with around 1.5 million average viewers, which puts him neck and neck with the Tonight Show. 

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.

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