Photo: Scott Kowalchyk/CBS
First on LateNighter: Stephen Colbert’s Late Show just hit a season-to-date ratings high, thanks to Monday night’s Strike Force Five reunion.
According to preliminary Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, Monday’s episode drew 2.819 million total viewers and 231,000 viewers among adults 18-49.
That marks The Late Show’s largest live-plus-same-day total-viewer audience since January 26, 2025, when a special Sunday night episode airing after CBS’ AFC Championship Game coverage delivered a football-fueled lift. To find a higher-rated regular weeknight episode, you have to go back to October 2024, when then-Vice President Kamala Harris visited the show in the final stretch of the presidential campaign.
Monday night’s viewer numbers are likely to grow significantly once delayed-viewing data is factored in. Linear ratings data also don’t include online viewing on YouTube, social media, or Paramount+. (At last count, an extended YouTube upload of their appearance had racked up 3.2 million views.)
The Late Show’s reunion of Strike Force Five, the limited-run podcast launched during the 2023 writers strike, marked the first time Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver have all appeared together on a single late-night show.
As we’ve reported, the quintet stuck around after Monday night’s taping to record a brand-new episode of their old podcast, which launched online earlier today.
With Colbert’s two time-slot competitors at the Ed Sullivan Theater with him, both Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon aired repeats Monday night. Neither show drew even half of Colbert’s audience Monday night, with Kimmel drawing 1.32 million total viewers to Fallon’s 1.28 million.
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