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'Conan': Early ratings put O'Brien ahead of Leno [Updated]
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(Updates throughout from the earlier post.)And all across the Coco Nation, there was much rejoicing, because for one night at least, their hero had vanquished the dread Peacock.
TBS says the "Conan" premiere drew 4.15 million viewers Monday night (Nov. 8), which will likely put the show ahead of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (NBC hasn't released viewer numbers yet; see the metered-market comparison below). The premiere also scored a 2.5 rating among adults 18-49, better than a number of shows that aired in network primetime (including all of NBC's lineup).
"Conan's audience has been very vocal online, and he clearly made a smooth transition from Twitter to TBS," Turner Entertainment Networks president Steve Koonin says. "'Conan' delivered an extraordinary audience and stands out as the youngest late-night talk show on television."
TBS says the median age of people watching the "Conan" premiere was 30; more than half the audience fell in the adults 18-34 demographic.
By comparison, "The Tonight Show" averaged 3.6 million viewers for the week of Oct. 25-29 (the last week for which full ratings are available), and "The Late Show with David Letterman" drew 3.8 million people to CBS. The premiere of "Lopez Tonight" on TBS a year ago -- which was hyped just slightly less than that of "Conan" -- delivered 1.7 million viewers and averaged 1.6 million for its first week.
Preliminary ratings for the premiere of "Conan" on TBS Monday night (Nov. 8) have the show beating NBC's "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" -- and we're guessing that many toasts about that are being made on the Warner Bros. lot where "Conan" tapes.
Ratings from Nielsen's 56 metered markets have "Conan" at a 2.8 household rating, while "Tonight" came in at 2.7. ("The Late Show with David Letterman" scored a 2.5 in the metered markets; numbers for "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" weren't available.)
Will those numbers hold? Probably not for the long term. Curiosity about "Conan's" debut will likely dip in the coming days and weeks, and "The Tonight Show" pretty regularly draws the ratings it did on Monday night. Still, TBS is plenty happy with "Conan's" premiere ratings -- and Team Coco has to be too.
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Photo credit: TBS
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I'm sure everybody expected that his first few shows would do well and they've certainly been hyped enough. Conan can be funny, but I'm not going to go out of my way to watch his show. I don't know anybody other than me in my circle of friends who even watched last night.
@ Justin W
Yeah, you're right......but look at the difference.....Conan is on cable while Leno is on network TV.....network TV should get higher ratings.
It is one thing to score a narrow win on opening night; it is something else to attract viewers on an ongoing basis.
I watched both shows last night thanks to my DVR. I found Conan less entertaining on TBS than when he was on NBC. Come to think of it, it has been a long time since Jay was really that funny.
I suspect I will stick with Jay. He seems to be more entertaining.
Perhaps TBS would have been better served to have created a late night show with a different format. The late night talk show field seems to be rather crowded.
Watched part of both shows. Conan was trying too hard. He was funny and likeable but has to learn to be more cool.
Jay is his usual self. Underneath that late show host is a strong core and he is not going out easy.
I guess I choose Jay and I am no ones target audience. No one cares.
I enjoyed Conan's new show! I haven't been watching Late Night shows lately but I definately will be tuning into Conan's. He was hysterical!! Loved it!
Watched Conan, it was great. Haven't watched Late Night since Leno returned. Tried to give Leno another chance, but he's terrible and unfunny. Conan had me cracking up last night.
When you consider he was on TBS, he shouldn't even be in spitting distance of Leno. To win the ratings for the night shows how weak Leno is and how great Conan's fanbase is.
Leno couldn't draw a .8 on Cable.
At Justin- Dude, the late night shows may be crowded, but let's not forget, Conan already had a place in late-night before Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jimmy Fallon Joined the scene. He was part of the big three since 1993 (not including CBS's Tom Shneider.) What you say is true, but his spot has always been there, not those other guys I mentioned.
I liked it alot. I laughed way more than i did on his tonight show. I am just glad he brought a couple things back from late night.
Jo enjoyed it. mrs murgatroyd thought he tried too hard. justin is pragmatic about ratings, doesn't think jay is funny but will stick with him. tapoutfan is spot on about network vs. cable, and i expect dianadee is surrounded by a skewed demographic.
myself, I'm surrounded by people who don't watch late night TV, period. they don't stay up past eleven. they have kids in school. i do too, but i'm a night owl and a third shifter at heart with a 9-5 job.
so while my mom is a old carson fan, now a conan fan, i have converted my kids and girlfriend by osmosis...
after watching conan on late night all those years, i thought the first year there was akward but funny, i hated it when andy left, and i thought the tonight show was finally getting away from being akward and too stuffy when they pulled the plug.
i am very glad he is loose and to me (contrary to mrs murgatroyd) is just letting loose and just putting on a show. He's trying hard, sure, but not so much to please "us" or TBS or even himself. He looks like he's having fun and that's cool.
I enjoy the daily show and colbert too, but lately it doesn't look like they have been "having fun" lately. they have been awfully bitter.. not about politics, which is fine, but about themselves and petty arguments. they've jumped the shark pretty hard. they're rally failed to do anything but waste time. they didn't need to tell people to vote, but it could have been some call to action beside making topiaries.
Suck it Leno!!! Good to have Conan back- I missed him so much!