Everyone wanted to stay up late with Stephen Colbert!
Everyone wanted to stay up late with Stephen Colbert!
The ratings are in from Tuesday night's inaugural episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and the new CBS host blew all of his competitors out of the TV waters.
With a strong 6.55 million viewers, Colbert triumphed over the time-slot and beat out NBC's The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon (2.92 million) and ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live! (1.75 million).
WATCH: The 8 Funniest Moments from Stephen Colbert's First 'Late Show'
To make matters even more impressive, the former Colbert Report host also surged past his Late Show predecessor David Letterman. Compared to the same night last year, Late Show spiked a massive 172 percent, and, compared the show's most recent premiere, it jumped 123 percent.
However, as for the conclusion of the last original Late Show, finales are also hard to compete with. Early figures for Letterman's May swan song gave the host a 9.3 rating among metered market households -- a stat that later translated into a two-decade high 13.76 million viewers.
Did you tune into Stephen Colbert's first episode as the host of The Late Show? Relive the eight funniest moments from Colbert's premiere in the video below!