David Letterman said goodbye to the Late Show last night on CBS and plenty of people at home stayed up to watch it live.
According to early ratings from Nielsen, Letterman earned a 9.3 rating from metered markets. That’s the highest local rating since Oprah Winfrey was on the show on Dec. 1, 2005.
As Deadline notes, that Winfrey episode ended up with 13.5 million viewers, so it will be interesting to see what the final numbers for last night’s show will be.
Letterman’s final show closed 33 years on late night, including his run as the first host of NBC’s Late Night. He switched to CBS to host the Late Show in 1993.
The final episode included a special, celebrity-filled Top 10, clips from old skits and a special performance from The Foo Fighters. It went around 18 minutes over the usual time and didn’t end until after 1 a.m. on the East Coast.
James Corden benefitted from the show, earning a 2.5 local rating for The Late Late Show. That was up 79 percent from last week.
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screenshot from Late Show YouTube page