NBC has scored its fourth successful launch of a summer reality series over the past two weeks with last night’s strong debut of “Last Comic Standing.” The stand-up comedy competition, created and hosted by Jay Mohr, dominated its time period last night, winning in all key categories, jumping 50 percent above NBC’s adult 18-49 rating on the same night last year and grabbing the Peacock’s highest rating in the time period in the nine weeks since the “Cher: The Farewell Tour” special aired April 8.
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According to preliminary “fast affiliate” in-home viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research, last night’s 9-11 p.m. ET premiere of “Last Comic Standing” (4.5 rating, 13 share among adults 18-49, 9.7 million viewers overall) won the slot by a towering 55 percent margin among adults 18-49 (4.5/13 vs. 2.9/8 for second-place ABC) and by 2.1 million viewers overall. By 10-11 p.m. ET hour, “Last Comic” beat its competition combined among adults, men and women 18-34; adults and men 18-49; and men 25-54. Starting next week, the regular time period for “Last Comic” is scheduled to be Tuesdays from 9-10 p.m. ET.
The triumphant “Last Comic” debut extends a Peacock hot streak that includes strong reality premieres over the last two weeks from “For Love Or Money,” “Fame” and “Dog Eat Dog.” With impressive numbers from all four of those shows, NBC’s prime-time lineup is up year-to-year by 14 percent in non-sports 18-49 ratings since the close of the regular season (with a 3.3 rating vs. last year’s 2.9 for the period May 22 through June 9).
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