The debut of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on CBS was watched by 6.6 million viewers, easily outpacing its late-night competition, according to Nielsen figures cited by the network.<br />CBS said the "Late Show" was up 131% compared with last year's season opener, when David Letterman was hosting the program.<br />Its viewership total was more than double the audience of 2.9 million that watched NBC's "Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon."<br />ABC's " Jimmy Kimmel" averaged 1.8 million viewers.<br />Prior to Mr. Colbert's arrival, "Tonight Show" had averaged 3.3 million viewers this summer while "Jimmy Kimmel" was drawing 2.2 million viewers.<br />A big audience for Mr. Colbert's CBS premiere was to be expected.<br />He had a very loyal audience from his previous show, "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central, and CBS Corp. also heavily promoted the launch.
