ABC's "Kimmel" Posts its Most-Competitive Finish Ever With "Letterman"

Some early points on Jimmy Kimmel Live's weekly numbers, ahead of the regular press release:

During the week of April 16, 2012, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live grew its overall audience over the same week last year (+2%) for the 3rd consecutive week, standing as the only late-night broadcast talk show to build its viewer count year to year.

· During the week, ABC's JKL (M-F 12am) stood as the #3 broadcast talk show in late-night in Total Viewers, behind only NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (M-F 11:35pm) and CBS' The Late Show with David Letterman (M-F 11:35pm). In fact, JKL scored its most competitive finish ever with Letterman, pacing within 600k viewers of the veteran CBS late-night program.

· ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live outdrew NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (M-F 12:35am) by double-digit margins for the 4th week in a row in Total Viewers, leading the NBC program by its second-largest margin of the season (+36%). In fact, the ABC late-night program drew a larger overall audience than Fallon in all 5 days of the week. Also for the 4th straight week, JKL topped Fallon in Adults 18-49 (+18%), leading the NBC program in all 4 of JKL's original telecasts of the week.

· ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live outperformed CBS' The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (M-F 12:35am) by its second-best margin this season in Total Viewers (+45%), outdrawing the CBS program in 30 of the 31 weeks this season, while also beating Ferguson by an impressive 28% in Adults 18-49. The ABC late-night program outperformed Ferguson by double-digit percentages in all 5 days of the week in both Total Viewers and Adults 18-49. In fact, for the 3rd consecutive week, a repeat telecast of JKL on Friday outperformed an original telecast of Ferguson in both viewers (+38%) and Adults 18-49 (+21%),

· Season to date (31 weeks), ABC's JKL is building its overall audience through the same weeks last year by 3% in Total Viewers, growing the most year to year of any late-night broadcast talk show.

· Season to date, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live is the #3 broadcast talk show in late-night in Total Viewers, outdrawing both NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and CBS' The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.