Viewing habits
August 19, 2025
Jimmy Kimmel crunches the numbers for late-night:
Network television is declining. There's no question about that. But more people are watching late-night television than ever before — and I include Johnny Carson in that. People may find that shocking. When Carson was at his peak, he was getting around 9 million viewers a night. That's huge. Of course, the lead-in shows were getting 30 and 40 million, which was a big part of it. But people are still watching late-night — just in different places. Our monologues get between 2 and 5 million views, sometimes more, every night. Seth Meyers gets 2 million on YouTube alone. We're not even talking about Instagram or the other platforms. "The Daily Show" — Jon Stewart on a Monday night will get 5 million views.