Last year, The Tonight Show still held a steady margin over The Late Show in the key 18-49 age demographic, though Stephen Colbert’s viewership had topped Jimmy Fallon’s.
However, things are as heated as ever in the battle for late night talk show supremacy, with The Tonight Show consistently falling to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in both viewership and demographic ratings.
When considering that on a night-to-night basis, The Tonight Show essentially runs neck and neck with The Late Show’s demo rating, the decision to excise the NBC talk show’s opening sequence seems slightly more justified.
It marked Colbert’s overarching first demo win, and The Late Show’s first demo victory over The Tonight Show since the 1994-1995 season, when it was all about Leno vs. Letterman.