Nellie Andreeva

After David Letterman in the last week of October posted his first demo win over Leno since Leno’s return to The Tonight Show, Leno bounced back to reclaim the lead in both 18-49 and total viewers for the first week of November. This marks Leno’s first solo first-place finish at the top of the 18-49 rankings in 5 weeks, as Leno and Letterman were tied for 3 weeks before Letterman won outright the week before last. In 18-49, Leno averaged a 1.0 rating vs. a 0.9 for Letterman. The same week last year, Letterman and The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien were tied at 0.9. (In 18-49 viewers, Leno’s average was 1.26 million vs. 1.21 million for Conan last fall; Letterman’s was 1.20 million vs. 1.22 million last year.) The two may switch places again this week as Letterman dominated Leno on Monday night. Among total viewers, Leno averaged 3.9 million for the week, up from 2.3 million for Conan last fall; Letterman drew 3.7 million vs. 3.9 million last year. As for the third airing of Conan’s new latenight show on TBS, his ratings drops were far more moderate than the 33-42% between the premiere and night 2. Last night, Conan drew 2.7 million viewers, down only 3% from the night before. His 18-49 audience was 1.9 million, down 13%. In 18-34,he averaged  1.15 million, down 19%. Here are the averages for the broadcast latenight shows during the week of Nov. 1-5:

ADULTS 18-49
11:35 p.m.-12:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Tonight,” 1.0 rating, 4 share*
CBS “Late Show,” 0.9/4*
11:35 p.m.-12:05 a.m. ET
ABC “Nightline,” 1.0/4*

12:05-1:05 a.m. ET
ABC “Kimmel,” 0.5/3*
12:35-1:35 a.m. ET

NBC “Late Night,” 0.6/4*
CBS “Late Late Show,” 0.5/3*

1:35-2:05 a.m. ET
NBC “Last Call,” 0.4/3*

TOTAL VIEWERS
11:35 p.m.-12:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Tonight,” 3.9 million viewers*
CBS “Late Show,” 3.7 million viewers*

11:35 p.m.-12:05 a.m. ET
ABC “Nightline,” 3.9 million viewers*

12:05-1:05 a.m. ET
ABC “Kimmel,” 1.7 million viewers*

12:35-1:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Late Night,” 1.8 million viewers*
CBS “Late Late Show,” 1.7 million viewers*

1:35-2:05 a.m. ET
NBC “Last Call,” 1.1 million viewers*
*Tuesday telecasts are excluded from these averages due to Election Night disruptions.  Friday’s “Kimmel” was an encore.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.