ABC News’ “Nightline” continues its #1 run in late night. In the just completed Q4 2010, the show was No. 1 in Total Viewers (3.93 million) and A25-54 viewers (1.61 million), beating NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman.” This is the first-time ever that “Nightline” outperformed its late-night rivals in Total Viewers during a 4th quarter. This was also the third consecutive quarter that “Nightline” beat “Letterman” in Total Viewers (330,000), A25-54 viewers (40,000) and A18-49 viewers (100,000). “Leno” came in first in with A18-49 viewers.
“Nightline” also grew vs. Q4 2009 and had double-digit increases over Q3 2010 in Total Viewers (+16%), A25-54 (+15%) and A18-49 (+14%).
The show continues to rank first among Total Viewers and A25-54 viewers, season-to-date — the first time that’s happened since at least the 1993-94 season.
ABC’s ratings are based on a 30-minute broadcast, while CBS and NBC are based on one hour.
For the 4th Quarter, 2010:
| Show | Network | Total Viewers | A25-54 | A18-49 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nightline | ABC | 3.93M | 1.61M | 1.27M |
| Tonight Show | NBC | 3.88M | 1.59M | 1.29M |
| Late Show | CBS | 3.60M | 1.57M | 1.17M |