Leno, Fallon score in latenight for NBC

It might have been David Letterman honoring a milestone a week ago, however it was Jay Leno that won within the rankings race. NBC's "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" edged out CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman" for that Jan. 30-February. 3 frame in grown ups 18-49 (1.11 million to at least one.08 million), giving the Peacock show the benefit for any seventh straight week, based on Nielsen. Letterman celebrated his 30th year in latenight with Wednesday's show featuring Howard Stern as guest. On that evening, "Tonight Show" capped "Late Show" both in grown ups 18-49 (1.16 million versus. 1.ten million) and total audiences (3.82m versus. 3.26m). For that week, the 11:35 p.m. shows on NBC and CBS both carefully trailed Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" (1.12 million grown ups 18-49), that was up nicely year upon year, and ABC's "Nightline" (1.14 million), that was lower much like Leno and Letterman. Both "Daily" and "Nightline" take advantage of airing half-hour episodes that wrap sooner than "Tonight" being an hour block, the NBC vet outperform Comedy Central's combo in addition to ABC's ("Nightline"/"Due To Jimmy Kimmel Live"). It will likely be interesting to ascertain if a more powerful showing by NBC within the 10 o'clock hour on Monday with "Smash" can help Leno open a larger add Letterman. CBS continues to be the obvious rankings leader at 10:30 on weeknights this year. NBC also obtained in latenight a week ago with "Late Evening with Jimmy Fallon," which won the 12:35 a.m. hour in 18-49 over CBS' competing "Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson" for any tenth straight week (769,000 versus. 630,000), with both lower about 13% year upon year. "Late Evening" was increased by its three shows from Indiana just before NBC's Sunday telecast from the Super Bowl. The Wednesday-through-Friday models averaged b .7 rating in grown ups 18-49, up from a typical .5 for Monday and Tuesday. The weekly earnings for Fallon (769,000 in 18-49, 1.95 million audiences overall) were his second greatest of the season. As well as on Super Bowl Sunday, "Late Evening" set series records (2.5 rating in 18-49, 6.a million audiences overall) using its special episode (11:56 p.m.-12:56 a.m. ET), which adopted local news after "The Voice" in much of the nation. Contact Ron Kissell at ron.kissell@variety.com