The ultimate episode of The Late Present with Stephen Colbert drew 6.74 million viewers for CBS on Thursday, the most-ever for a weeknight episode, in keeping with preliminary Nielsen knowledge.
That’s greater than double the season common, with the Late Present typically drawing between 2.4 million and a pair of.7 million viewers an episode this previous season, which was its final on CBS. It’s nevertheless solely about half the viewers that David Letterman noticed for his farewell episode in 2015, when 13.7 million viewers tuned in.
Nonetheless, the almost seven million viewer determine is the perfect ever for a weeknight version of this system throughout Colbert’s run. The Late Present as soon as aired a post-Tremendous Bowl episode (Feb. 7, 2016) on a Sunday evening, which averaged 20.55 million viewers, whereas the sequence premiere of the Colbert Late Present averaged 6.55 million whole viewers. For the now-wrapped season, The Late Present averaged 2.69 million viewers.
As with Letterman’s closing present, Colbert’s closing present was star-studded, with appearances by the likes of Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd and Tim Meadows, and a closing efficiency led by Paul McCartney.
CBS introduced final summer season in a shock move that it might cancel the Late Present after the present season, citing the challenges economics of the timeslot. Byron Allen will take over 11:30 along with his Comics Unleashed sequence in a time-buy association with CBS.
The finale numbers, whereas robust in comparison with a typical episode, do underscore how viewing habits have modified. Colbert’s closing monologue has gathered 2.9 million views and relying on YouTube, whereas the musical efficiency with McCartney is at 1.1 million views and rising. Hundreds of thousands extra have watched clips on platforms like TikTok and Reels. These numbers aren’t apples to apples, in fact, however they’re an enormous a part of why and the way late evening’s modus operandi has modified.
And as of Friday, there’s one much less community, and one much less present, within the recreation.
