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In the late night TV wars, Jimmy Kimmel is winning a key battle — the push for digital fans, the latest figures show.
ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” has 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube and has logged nearly 950 million views on the video-streaming site, far outdistancing his rivals on NBC and CBS, recent numbers show.
The 45-year-old talk show host’s popularity in the digital world could be the reason he has steadily eaten into the lead Jay Leno and the “Tonight Show” had in the key 18- to 49-year-old demographic since switching to the 11:35 p.m. time slot in January.
“On YouTube anyone can have a breakout hit video, but when people subscribe to a channel, they end up watching twice as much video from that channel,” a YouTube spokesperson told The Post.
Jimmy Fallon, the host of NBC’s “Late Night,” who is widely expected to replace Leno at 11:35 p.m. next year, has just 250,000 YouTube subscribers and 100 million views.
Leno, far off the pace, has 20,000 YouTube subscribers.
In recent years, the comedians of late night have taken their battle for larger TV audiences around the clock online by offering extras on YouTube, Twitter and mobile apps.
These television hosts hope that the full-out digital assault leads to larger TV ratings — or at least a slower erosion of eyeballs.
While Jay Leno commands the most cherished brand — and is still the late night ratings champ — his younger competitors are killing him in online viewership.
Meanwhile, Conan O’Brien, who trails his broadcast rivals in ratings, has compiled an impressively strong digital audience.
With 465,000, O’Brien has nearly twice as many YouTube subscribers as Fallon.
That, no doubt, helped make it easier yesterday for TBS to re-sign O’Brien for his show all the way through November 2015.
“Late night shows used to be on the air for an hour — now it’s a 24-hour gig,” a source close to O’Brien’s social media team told The Post yesterday.
The way the comedians use YouTube differs as well, showing there’s more than one way to grab an audience online.
Kimmel engages his audience by challenging viewers to post videos that he later airs.
Fallon is a viral hit-maker, posting popular musical segments, like a recent performance he did along with singer Selena Gomez.
David Letterman’s presence is harder to discern because his videos appear on CBS’s YouTube channel, not exclusively reserved for his show.
Still, it’s clear that social and digital media are a younger comic’s game.
Letterman has 58,000 Twitter followers compared to O’Brien’s and Fallon’s more than 8 million each.
Kimmel has 2.4 million Twitter followers.
“Viewers want comedy when and where they want it,” the person familiar with O’Brien’s digital media strategy told The Post. “Conan’s fans engage with Conan all day and across all types of screens.”