Rosie O’Donnell’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! Takeover Sets Summer Ratings High

Rosie O’Donnell is three nights into a four-night guest-hosting run on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and her return to talk-show hosting is already a ratings success. Monday’s episde drew 1.87 million total viewers, the largest audience for any of the show’s guest hosts this summer, according to preliminary Nielsen Live+Same Day figures reported by LateNighter. O’Donnell also led the late-night programs tracked by LateNighter among adults ages 18-49, with 218,000 viewers in the demographic. For comparison, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon drew 156,000 in the demo that night. The 1.87 million figure is only an early snapshot and could rise as they account for delayed viewing. The interest has carried over to YouTube as O’Donnell’s week has continued. As of Thursday afternoon, her Monday opening monologue had climbed to 2.6 million views, followed by 1.3 million for Tuesday’s and more than 740,000 for Wednesday’s. The latter videos have naturally had less time to accumulate views, but all three have drawn substantial audiences during her four-night stint. O’Donnell’s booking came with some obvious political interest. When Kimmel announced his summer guest hosts, he introduced the longtim...