Comedy Centrals @midnight, a new talkshow/gameshow hybrid that pokes fun at social media, scored well among its target young viewers last week.
The Chris Hardwick-hosted program, airing weeknights after The Colbert Report, was the No. 3 latenight cable talkshow in adults 18-34 for the week of Oct. 21, averaging 297,000 viewers, according to Nielsen. It retained nearly 90% of Colberts 18-34 audience (336,000) and outperformed TBS Conan (242,000) and E!s Chelsea Lately (127,000) among others.
@midnight had the lowest median age of any talkshow last week 33.
Among men 18-24 (94,000) and 18-34 (223,000), @midnight built on Colbert Report and placed second only to the networks Daily Show, which airs an hour earlier and was No. 1 among cable talkshows in all categories.
In these male demos, the four-night premiere-week audience of @midnight also compares favorably to the recent averages of broadcast talkshows. Its 223,000 men 18-34 last week was larger than the October average of NBCs Tonight Show With Jay Leno (168,000) and Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (152,000), ABCs Jimmy Kimmel Live (123,000) and CBS Late Show With David Letterman (91,000), according to Nielsen data for original episodes.
In total viewers, @midnight averaged 609,000 viewers in its first week, retaining about half of its Colbert Report audience (1.2 million). Daily Show averaged 1.62 million.
Not surprisingly, the signature segment of @midnight was a big success on Twitter, generating trending topics during each episode. It was also ranked by SocialGuide as the new Late Fringe categorys top entertainment series for four of its first six episodes (including two this week).
