‘The Late Show’s Studio & Audience Return Set To Help Stephen Colbert Talker To Four-Month High

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert returned to the studio with all the bells and whistles last night.

There were hugs, a raucous audience and an admittedly slightly strange appearance from Jon Stewart.

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The bonanza also helped the CBS in the overnight ratings. The return to the Ed Sullivan Theater episode scored 2.32M viewers in live+same day ratings, which was its largest audience since Tuesday May 11 – the night that Michelle Obama appeared.

The network also estimates that when the live+3 ratings come in this will rise to 3.18M, which would make it the show’s best performance since Monday February 8, the night after the Super Bowl, which featured The Equalizer’s Queen Latifah and Minari’s Steven Yeun.

Now that The Late Show and The Tonight Show are back with crowds, and Jimmy Kimmel Live! is expected to have a full audience now that California restrictions have been lifted, it will be interesting to see if this has any longer term impact on the numbers.

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