![\"Jimmy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/fa017b7bc4de084d989b5868645b6b3a.jpeg\"\/)
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Jimmy Kimmel came ahead of the competition on Monday night. \/ ABC<\/p>\n
Kimmel saw 2.185 million total viewers on June 1, marking a 53-percent year-on-year increase. The ABC show also captured 295,000 viewers in the coveted 18-49 demographic, a staggering 178-percent increase from the same night last year.<\/p>\n
Fallon came in a distant second with 1.301 million total viewers, but did increase by 10 percent year-over-year. In the 18-49 demo, the show saw a 14-percent increase from last year to 194,000 viewers.<\/p>\n
![\"Jimmy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/58d250953443ed88cb34b7632f245ae3.jpeg\"\/)
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Jimmy Fallon came in second in total viewers on June 1. \/ YouTube\/The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon<\/p>\n
CBS ended up trailing the competition with only 628,000 total viewers for Byron Allen\u2019s Comics Unleashed, which launched a day after Colbert left the network, a 65-percent drop for the same time slot compared to last year. In the 18-49 demo, only 82,000 viewers tuned in.<\/p>\n
Under a unique \u201ctime buy\u201d deal with the network, Allen bought the coveted 11:35 p.m. time slot from CBS but covers all production costs for his comedy panel show and, in turn, gains the right to sell advertising himself. That means that it\u2019s Allen, not CBS, that is directly affected by poor ratings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re proud to partner with Byron Allen on a new business and programming model for late night that proactively addresses a network daypart that was cost-prohibitive to continue,\u201d CBS previously said in the statement<\/a>. \u201cWith this \u2018time buy\u2019 model, we have shifted an hour that was losing roughly $40 million annually to $15 million in profit\u2014a $55 million swing.\u201d<\/p>\n A source familiar with the matter told the Daily Beast that this model allows CBS to program the late-night time slot without being susceptible to shifting audience and advertiser trends.<\/p>\n The numbers came as the network reimagines a late-night universe without Colbert, who helmed The Late Show for more than a decade before a festive sign-off last month that featured Paul McCartney<\/a> as the final guest. He took over the show from David Letterman in 2015.<\/p>\n CBS first announced the shocking end of the Colbert era in July 2025<\/a>. Though the network billed the change as \u201cpurely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night,\u201d viewers and lawmakers alike couldn\u2019t help but notice the timing.<\/p>\n The announcement was made days after Colbert called out CBS for agreeing to pay $16 million to settle the lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n \u201cI absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings,\u201d Trump wrote after the cancellation was announced. \u201cI hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!\u201d<\/p>\n Letterman threw his weight behind Colbert in an interview with The New York Times<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n Colbert was \u201cdumped because the people selling the network to Skydance said, \u2018Oh no, there\u2019s not going to be any trouble with that guy. We\u2019re going to take care of the show. We\u2019re just going to throw that into the deal. When will the ink on the check dry?\u2019 I\u2019m just going to go on record as saying: They\u2019re lying,\u201d Letterman said. \u201cLet me just add one other thing. They\u2019re lying weasels.\u201d<\/p>\n Obsessed with pop culture and entertainment? Follow us on Substack<\/a> and YouTube<\/a> for even more coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Late-night viewers appear to have crowned their new favorite following Stephen Colbert\u2019s departure from CBS airwaves. On Monday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[216422,146,85,46,20334,4176,6676,411],"class_list":["post-479316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-byron-allen","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jimmy-fallon","tag-jimmy-kimmel","tag-stephen-colbert","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}