As Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert dominated the world of late-night comedy news for the past decade, they also won over advertisers in that space, leaving several late-night shows in the dust.
Part of that was because advertisers felt that The Daily Show and Colbert Report appealed to the coveted 18-49 demographic much better than broadcast last-night shows, which were slowly losing younger audiences in recent years.
Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel have helped the broadcast side recently, but now with Colbert coming to CBS, the broadcast players have really begun to put up a fight.
According to ad cost company SQAD NetCosts, Comedy Central beat ABC, CBS and NBC in ad prices from 2012-2014. But with the recent late-night host shakeups, that has begun to switch over to broadcast’s side, especially with NBC’s Tonight Show. SQAD NetCosts also said that Colbert’s current ad rates are far higher than Letterman was able to pull in.
SQAD NetCosts attributes these numbers in part to the younger audiences on Comedy Central and older audiences that were slowly leaving The Tonight Show and The Late Show with Jay Leno and David Letterman. Fallon has reinvigorated younger viewers, however, with advertisers flocking to him the most in the latest quarter.
Read more at Adweek.
Brief Take: When Colbert takes over The Late Show on Sept. 8, he’ll do more than reinvigorate the show’s brand for CBS, but also potentially earn the broadcaster far higher ad prices in the coming years, depending on how he does with younger demographics.
[Image courtesy of CBS]
Tags: