Culture 2 min read By Morgan Griffin
Jimmy Kimmel Live draws 2.4 million viewers for midterm election telecast
ABC's midterm election telecast of Jimmy Kimmel Live reached 2.4 million viewers, up 53 percent from the 2022 midterm broadcast, according to Nielsen ratings.
Jimmy Kimmel Live drew 2.4 million viewers for its midterm election telecast on ABC, the highest audience the program has recorded for a midterm election night broadcast. The figure, based on Nielsen ratings, represents a 53 percent increase over the audience for the show's midterm telecast on Nov. 8, 2022.
The broadcast aired on a Tuesday night during the week of the midterm elections. Variety framed the ratings result as a win for Democrats, a characterization that reflected the political tone of the night's coverage and the broader narrative surrounding the results.
The midterm numbers arrived alongside other notable entertainment viewership figures from the same week. Saturday Night Live's Nov. 4 episode, hosted by Druski with The Strokes as musical guest, drew 5.6 million Live+Same Day viewers across NBC and Peacock. That figure marks a two-year high for the franchise. Druski is the first online creator to host the show, a milestone that drew attention from industry observers during the week.
Filmmaker Alex Gibney, director of the documentary Musk, also spoke about the election results at the opening day of DOC NYC. Gibney described the blue wave as magnificent, but cautioned that the work ahead remains hard. He pointed to the continued flow of money behind the MAGA movement as a challenge that will not disappear with one election cycle.
Taken together, the audience gains for Kimmel's election coverage and the strong SNL numbers suggest that viewers turned to late-night and sketch comedy programming during a week dominated by political news. The Kimmel telecast's 53 percent rise over 2022 stands out as the clearest measure of that shift.
Source: variety.com
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