UPDATE: Leno Beat Letterman As Expected

11 AM UPDATE: In Late-Night Fast Nationals Monday Night…

• “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” (1.6 rating in adults 18-49) led the time period over CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman” (1.1) and ABC’s “Nightline (1.3) in fast  national “live plus same day” ratings from Nielsen Media Research.  The “Tonight” margin over “Late Show” in fast-national adult 18-49 rating is 45 percent.
• In total viewers in the fast nationals, “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (6.6 million) ranked #1 among the major networks in the time period over “Late Show” (3.8 million) and “Nightline” (4.1 million).  The “Tonight” margin over “Late Show” in total viewers in these fast-national results is 73 percent.
• At 12:35 a.m., “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” (0.7 in adults 18-49) out-delivered CBS’s “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” (0.5) by a margin of 40 percent in these fast nationals.  In total viewers, “Late Night” (2.1 million viewers overall) topped “Late Late Show” (1.8 million) by a margin of 16 percent.

That’s not exactly unexpected news. Leno is expected to top Letterman all week, fueled by Olympic medal-winners and tonight’s Sarah Palin vs Mitt Romney late night booking war. The real competition won’t begin until next week.

For the first night of the “Jaysurrection”, Leno’s Tonight Show did a 5.4 rating/14 share in metered-market households versus CBS Late Show with David Letterman‘s 3.0/8 and ABC Nightline‘s 3.4/8 and Jimmy Kimmel Live‘s 1.8/6 in Nielsen’s 56 metered markets. The Tonight margin over Late Show in metered-market households was 80%.

Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.