Byron Allen’s ‘Comics Unleashed’ Tops Kimmel, Fallon in Key Ratings Demo – LateNighter

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With much of late night in repeats as the calendar edges toward Labor Day, Byron Allen’s two-hour CBS block is proving remarkably resilient, especially among younger viewers.

In fact, for the first time since taking over the CBS slot previously occupied by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Monday night’s 11:35 p.m. episode of Comics Unleashed beat both ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! and NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in the demo nationwide.

According to preliminary live-plus-same-day ratings for Monday, August 24, Comics Unleashed drew 161,000 adults 18–49. Kimmel—airing an original episode with guest host Jelly Roll—drew 158,000 adults 18–49 in its first half hour, while a repeat of The Tonight Show from the first week of August drew 154,000.

Allen’s CBS shows are in repeats themselves until September 21. But unlike most of their late-night competition, Comics Unleashed and Funny You Should Ask are designed to be evergreen, with nothing in any given episode tying it to the day it first aired. As we’ve previously noted, that’s made reruns far less costly ratings-wise for Allen than they are for more topical late-night shows.

Among total viewers, Comics Unleashed still finished third in the 11:35 half hour Monday, though by a considerably smaller margin than it typically faces when Kimmel and Fallon are behind their desks airing originals.

The week-to-week movement is striking. Compared with the same half hour last Monday, Comics Unleashed was up 14.5 percent in total viewers and 84.5 percent among adults 18–49.

By comparison, The Tonight Show’s full-hour average was down 11 percent in total viewers and 15 percent in the demo from the previous Monday. Jimmy Kimmel Live! with Jelly Roll was down 15 percent in total viewers and 42 percent among adults 18–49 from last Monday night, when Rosie O’Donnell kicked off her week behind Kimmel’s desk.

In raw numbers, the first-half-hour divergence is even clearer: Kimmel lost 93,000 adults 18–49 week over week and The Tonight Show lost 24,000, while Comics Unleashed added 71,000.

Allen’s Monday gains continued after midnight.

Funny You Should Ask, airing opposite a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers, delivered its second-best household performance since premiering in its new CBS late-night slot on May 22.

And for the first time, an episode of Funny You Should Ask beat Meyers in total viewers: the second half hour topped NBC’s competing half hour by 13 percent.

Perhaps most notable for CBS, the full two-hour block was up 13 percent among adults 18–34 and 1 percent among adults 18–49 compared with CBS’s August 2025 averages for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and After Midnight.

That doesn’t mean Allen’s block has suddenly become late night’s biggest draw. It hasn’t. But the deeper CBS gets into the summer—and the more its competitors lean on reruns—the more Allen’s low-cost, big-tent approach appears to be paying off.

Complete ratings charts for Monday August 24, 2026 follow below:

Live+SD ratings (All Viewers 2+)

Live+SD ratings (18-49 demo)

Ratings Data © The Nielsen Company, used under license. 

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