Jimmy Kimmel Wins Round 3 in New Late Night Ratings Battle for Demo

Three nights into its new run at 11:35 p.m., Jimmy Kimmel Live! seems to have locked down his strongest numbers yet — and its first outright victory in the key demo.

Fast National ratings give Thursday’s broadcast of Live! a 1.0 rating among adults 18-to-49, or roughly 1.17 million. That’s up a tenth of a point from the previous night, when the ABC host tied Jay Leno on NBC’s The Tonight Show.

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Leno and David Letterman, both posting a 0.7 rating on Thursday, were neck and neck with a respective 938,000 and 929,000 viewers in the demo.

Among total viewers, Kimmel still is in third place — though his broadcast did recoup Wednesday losses to notch his top showing of the week: 3.17 million viewers.

Leno’s broadcast, pulling 3.4 million viewers, remained on top. And Letterman brought in 3.29 million.