So says Comedy Central in a press release:
“The Daily Show” Earns Its First Adult 18-49 Crown For A Full Quarter Breaking “The Tonight Show’s” 40+ Quarter Victory Streak Dating Back To At Least 1Q 2000
“The Daily Show” And “The Colbert Report” End The Quarter As The Most-Watched Late Night Talk Shows In All Of Television Among Adults 18-34, Adults 18-24, Men 18-34 And Men 18-24
Not so fast, says NBC:
A spokesperson for the network says that Comedy Central strategically counted the ratings only for new episodes, while neglecting the ratings for reruns. According to their tabulations, The Tonight Show comes out on top when every episode is counted, 1.283 million to 1.167 million. In an e-mail, Comedy Central spokesman Steve Albani said, “Broadcast traditionally has always included original plays and encores but like a lot of things they do, we believe that to be an archaic way of measuring performance. To each their own.”
Surprisingly, Nightline beat all late-night shows in both overall viewers (4.1 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.297 million).
Top 10 Late-night Talkshows (Adult 18-49)
1. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (1,295,000 avg viewers)
2. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1,292,000)
3. The Late Show with David Letterman (1,096,000)
4. The Colbert Report (960,000)
5. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (842,000)
6. Jimmy Kimmel Live (766,000)
7. Conan (748,000)
8. Chelsea Lately (720,000)
9. The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (702,000)
10. Lopez Tonight (340,000)