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Jay Leno Bests Jimmy Kimmel in First Late-Night Showdown After Time-Slot Move

by Tierney Bricker Wed., Jan. 9, 2013 12:45 PM PST

ABC, NBC

Did Jimmy Kimmel get by with a little help from his (very famous) friend?

Jimmy Kimmel Live officially made its move to 11:35 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 8, putting the host up against rival Jay Leno and David Letterman for the first time. For his big event, Kimmel welcomed Jennifer Aniston, whom he recently vacationed with in Mexico, as his first guest and it turns out that Aniston was good for business, helping the late-night host score his second most-watched telecast ever.

Alas, Aniston was almost, but not quite enough to win the night as Leno still ended up taking the ratings battle...

Check out Aniston's interview on Kimmel here

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno won the night with 3.3 million viewers, while Kimmel brought in 3.1 million viewers for ABC. Over on CBS, The Late Show with David Letterman attracted 2.9 million viewers.

Leno also bested Kimmel in the all-important Adults 18-49 demo, scoring 1.1 million to Kimmel's 887,000. Letterman attracted 683,000 in that demo.

Still, it doesn't seem like Kimmel will be bragging much about his ratings win over Letterman, as he recently said, "If I beat David Letterman in the ratings, does that mean I'm better than Letterman? No f--king way."

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