While everyone scrutinizes James Corden’s TV ratings, no examination of the current late-night landscape is complete without a look at how CBS is faring online with viral clips of its new host.
Corden’s got a lot of catching up to do, according to data based on his opening night of CBS’ “The Late Late Show with James Corden” provided by ListenFirst Media.
After Corden’s debut, his show’s YouTube channel generated 590,686 “engagements,” which combines views, thumbs up comments and new subscribers. This puts “The Late Late Show’s” channel light years behind the late night YouTube leader Jimmy Fallon; Fallon’s videos on the channel for NBC’s “The Tonight Show” registered 21,174,263 engagements over the same period (March 23 to 24).
Much of Corden’s digital impression was driven by a trio of YouTube clips from his debut, including his golden ticket sketch, Mila Kunis’ big news and the Tom Hanks filmography skit.
Second behind Fallon is ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” channel, which registered 5,167,548 engagements. Between Kimmel and Corden lie HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” which garnered 2,561,343 engagements, and TBS’ “Conan,” which earned 2,150,539 engagements.
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Corden’s comparatively meager 590,686 YouTube engagements did outdo those of his fellow CBS host David Letterman, whose page registered 567,174 engagements in the same period. Seth Meyers’ show on NBC also trailed Corden’s performance with 361,798 engagements.
Listen First also measured Corden’s first show’s digital audience ratings for television (DAR-TV), which are essentially an aggregate of daily engagements between viewers and a show’s YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Wikipedia and Google+ pages. Corden’s DAR-TV score of 642,000 did place him ahead of the premiere week of “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore,” which scored 330,000.
It’s likely that Corden’s viral success will take time to gain momentum — after all, this data is based on just his first episode. Fallon has had a yearlong head start, but perhaps Corden would do well to arrange a few lip-synching contests or beer-pong tournaments if he wants to give Fallon a run for his money.
