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Twitter'Jay Leno' and the least DVR'ed shows of the season
When NBC was hyping "The Jay Leno Show" over the summer, one of the things executives kept saying is that the show would be "DVR-proof," meaning that people would want to watch live -- commercials and all -- so as not to miss anything.Well, that's turning out to be true. But it's not quite the bonus the network was hoping it to be.
In both raw numbers and percentage of viewers, "The Jay Leno Show" is among the least-recorded shows of the season so far, according to seven-day DVR figures from the start of the season through Oct. 25. Leno's average of 5.57 million viewers per night goes up less than 4 percent, to 5.8 million, when DVR use is factored in.
Either way, that's not a lot of eyeballs. And with at least one study suggesting that even when they fast-forward, people still register some impression of ads, being "DVR-proof" is not necessarily a good thing. (I've also heard anecdotally that people use the 10 o'clock hour, when Leno airs, to catch up on shows they've recorded earlier or on previous nights. That obviously detracts from both Leno's show and the dramas on ABC and CBS.)
The DVR numbers for Leno's show are, however, in line with a couple of unscripted shows where the emphasis is on seeing things as they happen. ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" gets only about a 4-percent bump for each of its weekly airings, while less than 3 percent of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition's" viewers watch the show more than a day after it airs.
They also have much bigger audiences to start with than "Leno" -- "DWTS" averages just under 17 million same-day viewers on Monday and 13.59 million on Tuesday, while "EM: Home Edition" has an audience of 10.56 million on Sunday nights.
As you might expect, live sports programs are at the very bottom of the heap. NBC's Sunday NFL pre-game show, "Football Night in America," adds fewer than 10,000 people, and "Sunday Night Football" and ABC's prime-time college game on Saturdays each add fewer than 25,000 more viewers.
Leaving out sports, here are the weakest DVR performers for the 2009-10 season through Oct. 25 in terms of viewers added:
"America's Most Wanted" (FOX): Same-day viewers, 5.037 million; 7-day viewers, 5.126 million, +89,000
"Cops" (FOX): 4.397 million to 4.508 million, +111,000
"Brothers" (FOX, Fridays): 2.397 million to 2.517 million, +120,000 >>"America's Funniest Home Videos" (ABC): 7.992 million to 8.131 million, +139,000
"The Beautiful Life" (The CW): 1.047 million to 1.214 million, +167,000 (canceled after two episodes)
"60 Minutes" (CBS): 13.925 million to 14.111 million, +186,000
"The Jay Leno Show" (NBC, Tuesday): 6.184 million to 6.371 million, +187,000
"Supernanny" (ABC): 4.527 million to 4.717 million, +190,000
"The Jay Leno Show" (Monday): 5.143 million to 5.343 million, +200,000
"The Jay Leno Show" (Thursday): 5.066 million to 5.287 million, +221,000
"The Jay Leno Show" (Friday): 5.543 million to 5.764 million, +221,000
The smallest percentage gains are:
"60 Minutes": +1.3% (13.925 million to 14.111 million)
"America's Funniest Home Videos": +1.7% (7.992 million to 8.131 million)
"America's Most Wanted": +1.8% (5.037 million to 5.126 million)
"Cops": +2.5% (4.397 million to 4.508 million)
"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (ABC): +2.7% (10.558 million to 10.844 million)
"The Jay Leno Show" (Tuesday): +3.0% (6.184 million to 6.371 million)
"Dateline" (NBC, Friday): +3.1% (7.167 million to 7.389 million)
"The Jay Leno Show" (Monday) +3.9% (5.143 million to 5.343 million)
"The Jay Leno Show" (Wednesday): +3.9% (5.903 million to 6.133 million)
"The Jay Leno Show" (Friday): +4.0% (5.543 million to 5.764 million)
"Dancing with the Stars" (ABC, Monday): +4.0% (16.981 million to 17.658 million)
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Related:
TV's most-DVR'ed shows, Oct. 5-11
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No offense, Jay, but DIE, JAY LENO SHOW, DIE!
I too wish for this to die and I will be gleefully happy when it eventually does.
It's only a matter of time before the 10PM hour rightfully goes back to a scripted drama....and not to a cartoonish, time-to-be-put-out-to-pasture talk show host with a hugely over-inflated ego.
Not that i'll go back to watching anything on NBC anyway.
It would just be nice to see this show rightfully die.
It doesn't matter what NBC does.
NBC is dead to me.
I used to watch a lot of the drama on NBC at 10pm at night. Now I don't watch at all.
There is *nothing* on NBC that remotely interests me. It's become irrelevant.
Dream on if you think that if Leno fails, NBC will just go back to doing dramas. They will probably just give the hour back to the affiliates, and will probably have a schedule similar to Fox's, that is, if they don't simply shut down shop altogether.
It is stated in most articles that NBC affiliate's news programs, Conan O'Brien's , and Jimmy Fallon's ratings are all down due to the Leno effect. That may be true for the news shows, but Conan's ratings were already down. His loss of viewers can't be blamed on Leno.
It was obvious to most 5 years ago, when NBC touted their plan to replace Leno with Conan, that they were making a huge mistake. The decision to move Leno to prime time a few years later was a calculated risk which had a chance to succeed. The original decision was stupid.
Underlying the decision is that Conan was considered a draw to young males, a narrow but highly valued demographic. How did the the male demographic of 18 to 49 become the prevailing measure of success for TV shows? Based on personal observations, it doesn't seem logical.
Jeff, my limited understanding of why 18-49 is so desireable is their are lots and lots of shows watched by the older demographic. Advertisers have their pick of them. Want to advertise to kids? You have choices there too. But reaching lots of 18-49 year olds is difficult because there are limited shows that do this. Also, I seem to remember that advertisers like younger vierwers because they are not as set in their ways, and you can more easily convince them to try a new product. Scarcity is the main reason though.
I like Jay Leno, but haven't watched his new show. I wish he would go back to 11pm on any network. I like him because, of all the american talk show hosts, he let's the focus be on the guest the most. I once watched a Conan O'brien interveiw with Anne Hathaway, and I learned more about Conan than I did about Anne. Jay would have done better.
That BO hat worn by the band leader last night on Jays show was the end for me. I watch for relaxation and enjoyment. I don't need more politics jammed down my throat. and certainly not him..... Yuk
I've never watched Leno at 11:30 but have tried him a couple of times at 10:00 PM. He really is quite boring and provides little to laugh at. The most irritating thing is that band leader guy Eubanks who you always hear chuckling in the mike off camera. Jay can say something stupid like 'I have to scratch my head' and that guy will start chuckling. It's like Leno's own live laugh track. I won't be tuning back in.
As for advertising to the 18-49 or 18-34 age crowd, they are coveted because they buy spontaneously and thus an advertiser believes they can easily influence their decision to quickly buy their products or services with little extended investments necessary.