I bolded the past week’s relevant Conan v. Dave numbers.
Here is CBS’s spin on the same week’s numbers.
via press release:
CONAN WINS WEEK THREE IN EVERY KEY RATINGS DEMO ON EVERY NIGHT OF THE WEEK
‘THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH CONAN O’BRIEN’ DOMINATES ITS THIRD WEEK OVER ‘LATE SHOW’ IN EVERY IMPORTANT DEMO – ADULTS, MEN AND WOMEN 18-34, 18-49 AND 25-54 – DESPITE ‘LATE SHOW’S’ PALIN BOOST
CONAN HAS INCREASED ‘TONIGHT’S’ DEMO DOMINANCE, WINNING THE WEEK BY A 67 PERCENT MARGIN OVER ‘LATE SHOW,’ UP FROM A 53 PERCENT WIN LAST YEAR AND A 34 PERCENT LEAD EARLIER THIS SEASON
CONAN DELIVERS DECISIVE DEMO MARGINS OVER ALL BROADCAST AND CABLE COMPETITION FOR THE WEEK
CONAN’S AUDIENCE IS 11 YEARS YOUNGER THAN ‘LATE SHOW’S,’ AND CONAN IS EVEN YOUNGER THAN HE WAS ON ‘LATE NIGHT’ FOR THE SAME WEEK LAST YEAR
JIMMY FALLON WINS AT 12:35 A.M. BY A 60 PERCENT MARGIN, UP FROM 49 PERCENT FOR THE SAME WEEK LAST YEAR; IN MEDIAN AGE, JIMMY IS NINE YEARS YOUNGER THAN ‘LATE LATE SHOW’
CARSON DALY TIES FERGUSON AND KIMMEL IN 18-49 RATING, BEATS THEM IN 18-34
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – June 25, 2009 – “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” has dominated key late-night ratings for the week of June 15-19, out-delivering CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman” in every important demographic– adults, men and women 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 – on every night of the week.
Despite the ratings boost that came with Letterman’s apology to Gov. Sarah Palin on the Monday, June 15 “Late Show,” Conan’s “Tonight” dominated the week in every key demographic, stretching his leads versus the same week last year and compared with the “Tonight” season-to-date average. Conan won the week by a 67 percent margin in adult 18-49 viewers (1.8 million adults 18-49 vs. 1.1 million for “Late Show”), up from a 53 percent win during the same week last year and up from a 34 percent “Tonight” margin for the season through the end of May.
In the younger half of the key 18-49 demographic, adults 18-34, Conan won the week by a towering 164 percent margin (930,000 adults 18-34 vs. “Late Show’s” 352,000), up from 103 percent for the same week last year and up from 50 percent for “Tonight” this season through the end of May.
Conan also defeated all other broadcast and cable competition in the time period last week, delivering double- or triple-digit leads over the top cable networks in the time period among key demos: by 63 percent in adult 18-49 rating (1.3 vs. 0.8 for Adult Swim), 27 percent in adult 18-34 rating (1.4 vs. 1.1 for Adult Swim) and 114 percent in adult 25-54 rating (1.5 vs. 0.7 for USA). Conan’s 1.3 rating in adults 18-49 also decisively outscored Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” (0.8) and “Colbert Report” (0.6).
NBC’s late-night demographic surge extends to 12:35 a.m. ET, where “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” out-delivered CBS’s “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” in 18-49 viewers by a 60 percent margin last week (930,000 adults 18-49 vs. 581,000 for “Late Late Show”), up from a 49 percent margin for the same week last year and up from Jimmy’s 46 percent margin through the end of May.
The median age of Conan’s audience last week was 45.8, more than 11 years younger than Letterman’s 57.0. Conan is also younger than he was a year ago on “Late Night,” where the median age of his audience for this same week one year ago was 48.5.
At 12:35 a.m. ET, the median age of Jimmy Fallon’s audience was 44.0, more than nine years younger than the 53.5 for “Late Late Show.” ABC’s “Nightline” (57.9) and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (53.1) are also significantly older than “Tonight” and “Late Night.”
Conan has won 15 of 15 nights to date over “Late Show” in adults 18-49 and virtually every other important demographic. Conan has also maintained his demographic dominance through every night to date of the current week of June 22, according to Nielsen’s Local People Meters in 21 metered markets.
At 1:35 a.m. ET, “Last Call with Carson Daly” tied the adult 18-49 ratings of “Late Late Show” and “Kimmel.” In adults 18-34, “Last Call” (0.4 rating) beat both “Late Late” and “Kimmel” (0.3 each).
For the week of June 15-19, Conan’s average 1,763 million adults 18-49 topped the 1.058 million of Letterman; in total viewers, Conan’s audience of 3.320 million persons trailed Letterman’s 3.463 million; and in adults 18-34, Conan’s 930,000 million out-scored Letterman’s 352,000. At 12:35 a.m. ET, Jimmy Fallon’s 930,000 million adults 18-49 for the week out-delivered Ferguson’s 581,000; in total viewers, Jimmy’s 1.601 million beat Ferguson’s 1.547 million; and in adults 18-34, Jimmy’s 467,000 topped Ferguson’s 232,000.
WEEKLY AVERAGES
(According to in-home viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research for the week of June 15-19. Ratings reflect “live plus same day” data unless otherwise noted. Season-to-date figures are averages of “live plus seven day” data except for the two most recent weeks, which are “live plus same day.”)
ADULTS 18-49
11:35 p.m. ET
NBC “Tonight,” 1.3 rating, 6 share
CBS “Late Show,” 0.8/3
ABC “Nightline,” 0.7/3
12:05 a.m. ET
ABC “Kimmel,” 0.4/2*
12:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Late Night,” 0.7/4
CBS “Late Late Show,” 0.4/3
1:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Last Call,” 0.4/3*
TOTAL VIEWERS
11:35 p.m. ET
NBC “Tonight,” 3.3 million viewers
CBS “Late Show,” 3.5 million viewers
ABC “Nightline,” 3.0 million viewers
12:05 a.m. ET
ABC “Kimmel,” 1.3 million viewers*
12:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Late Night,” 1.6 million viewers
CBS “Late Late Show,” 1.5 million viewers*
1:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Last Call,” 0.9 million viewers*
* Monday’s “Last Call” and the Monday and Wednesday “Kimmel” telecasts were encores.
SEASON TO DATE
ADULTS 18-49
11:35 p.m. ET
NBC “Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien,” 1.8/8
CBS “Late Show,” 1.0/4
ABC “Nightline,” 1.1/4
12:05 a.m. ET
ABC “Kimmel,” 0.6/3
12:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” 0.8/5
CBS “Late Late Show,” 0.6/3
1:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Last Call,” 0.5/4
TOTAL VIEWERS
11:35 p.m. ET
NBC “Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien,” 4.6 million viewers
CBS “Late Show,” 3.8 million viewers
ABC “Nightline,” 3.8 million viewers
12:05 a.m. ET
ABC “Kimmel,” 1.7 million viewers
12:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” 2.1 million viewers
CBS “Late Late Show,” 1.9 million viewers
1:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Last Call,” 1.2 million viewers
SELECTED CABLE RESULTS, WEEK OF JUNE 15-19
NATIONAL ADULT 18-49 RATING
Comedy Central, 11 p.m. ET, “The Daily Show,” 0.8
Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m. ET, “The Colbert Report,” 0.6
Adult Swim, 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET, 0.8
Adult Swim, 12:30-1:30 a.m. ET, 0.5
Each adult 18-49 rating point equals 1.32 million viewers
TOTAL VIEWERS
Comedy Central, 11 p.m. ET, “The Daily Show,” 1.6 million
Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m. ET, “The Colbert Report,” 1.3 million
Adult Swim, 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET, 2.1 million
Adult Swim, 12:30-1:30 a.m. ET, 1.2 million
Nice! Go Conan!
To be expected- Dave got the Palin bump. Conan actually didn’t do that bad in overall viewers for the week, considering Dave had 700,000 more viewers than Conan did on Monday night. Conan made up a ton of ground the rest of the week. I’m betting Conan will again be back on top in overall viewers next week.
That’s not too much of a difference between Conan and Dave. Conan will win the viewers eventually. He kills in the demos, anyway.
How can more people watch Fallon than Ferguson?
Dave needs to retire, he hasn’t done anything note worthy in 10 years. Ferguson is the “king” of late night.
Conan is getting smacked around pretty good. Dave couldn’t top Leno even one night for what… the past 3 years? All of a sudden, Dave has trounced Conan 6 or 7 times in the past 3 weeks alone! Not good… no matter how hard you try and spin it.
And the 1.3 vs. 0.8 in 18-49 is laughable when you consider Letterman is 62 and Conan only 46.
Well its no surprise that Conan is destroying Letterman every day in the important demos. But what shocks me is that Daly actually tied/beat Ferguson in some demos some days.
And of course Fallon beat Ferguson. Maybe that’s because his show is awful.
“Not good… no matter how hard you try and spin it.”
Spungo, seems like you’re the one doing the spinning. Smacked around pretty good? Dave has trounced Conan? Yeah those don’t sound biased AT ALL.
The only real conclusion by now is the fact that Letterman doesn’t profit from the the change at NBC at all; his numbers remained pretty stable. Over one million (mostly older) Tonight Show viewers abandoned late night tv altogether, they didn’t mvoe over to Letterman. I guess that’s somewhat good news for Conan; he can try to build his own audience and doesn’t have to win anyone back.
CB: Conan is getting smacked around… and bad. How else can you spin him taking The Tonight Show from the UNDISPUTED leader for 14 STRAIGHT YEARS into second place within 3 weeks. It’s a disaster.
And Conan’s 18-49 numbers (used to spin the disaster of losing Leno’s 14 year insurmountable lead in total viewers in only 3 weeks) are also dropping quickly and are starting to hit Leno levels.
Just wait until Leno starts in September (and steals all the big names from Conan). The Tonight Show will be a distant #2, the luster will be gone, and a franchise will be ruined.
Spungo, I still think calling it a disaster is a bit far fetched at this point. Maybe it will get there one day, but I still think it’s too early to tell. If Conan holds steady I think NBC will be happy with the demo numbers he’s pulling in. And spin or no spin, demo numbers are important.
And let’s remember that Conan is still a new host of the Tonight Show. Him and Jay are a different brand of humour, and NBC knew that going in. We’re not even a month into the change. To say the franchise will be ruined come September is quite a prediction. I’ll go on record saying I do not think that will happen. I guess we’ll see what happens when Jay comes back.
I’d say the Tonight Show franchise is tarnished. I believe Robert Seidman posted a week or two ago that Jay Leno was averaging 1.4-1.6 in the 18-49 demographic. So, not only has Conan lost in total viewership to Letterman, he’s losing hold of Leno’s numbers in that important demographic. Personally, I am in the upper end of that demographic and I watched Conan for the first week. It was so painful, that I switched to Letterman and have consistently watched him for the past two weeks. I had watched the Tonight Show consistently for more than two decades.
Mike, my view still remains that this is the top of the first inning for Conan on the Tonight Show and that it’s way too early to tell how things will ultimately shake out. Give Leno at 10 a few months and then I’ll be willing to make a call.
BTW, Leno’s Tonight Show average 18-49 demo rating last fall was more like 1.3-1.5, and you can’t compare summer viewership to fall viewership. It’s apples to apples.
Jeez, some of you people are savages. It’s ONLY been three weeks, and late night viewers are creatures of habit.. keep in mind that millions of people are only just now getting to know Conan. Nobody was expecting Conan to stroll into the 11:30 spot, and just add all of Jay’s 11:30 viewers to his 12:30 ones.
I think Conan will perform a lot better this week, now that Letterman’s Palin bump is gone. This week, they seem to have evenly matched guests, so that might be a better test of viewer power. And next week, they’re both in repeats, so that’s a wash.
I’m at the low end of the 18-49 demo and spent my high-school and college years watching Conan. I’m a fan, but he’s not a good fit for The Tonight Show. I must say I’m glad Andy’s back though.
I understand NBC didn’t want to lose him, but if I were in their position I would have gladly let Conan walk. Fallon (of all people) has shown the ability to draw “Conan numbers” at 12:30. So 12:30 was set. And Jay over Conan at 11:30 is a no-brainer. Like Jay or not, he’s a proven ratings monster and likely would have been for 10+ years.
Losing Conan to ABC or Fox wouldn’t have hurt NBC in the slightest. Probably would have hurt Leteraman if anything.
I love what Conan’s doing with the show. He could have sold out completely, toned down what he was doing all his years on Late Night, and become a Leno-ish safe host with a slightly wider appeal. But he’s still doing his thing, and definitely getting better. I disagree with the comments about “ruining the franchise” because, let’s face it – one there’s Leno leading into it, its role in the lineup will be completely different, as well as the expectations. So ultimately it’s NBC who’s changing the Tonight Show, not Conan. He needs to keep ding his schtick for as long as they’ll let him, and we’ll keep watching.
This is pretty interesting. Conan actually did worse in the 18-49 demo this week than Leno was averaging, but Letterman and Nightline are both way down in that demo too. In fact, there are less OVERALL viewers for all three shows this week than what they were averaging before. Did the DTV transition take away that many viewers?
TSA brings up a good point. I feel like viewership is being displaced.
And does anybody know if the networks give any weight to DVR-ing or online watching? Is there any way to measure that? I mean surely demos would matter a a lot there, since companies buy up tons of advertising space on Hulu, NBC.com etc.
kt7811, Publicly, the story is that TV advertising is priced based on the C+3 (often seen as just C3) commercial ratings which measure the viewing of the average commercial minute within 3 days of airdate. For most shows C3 ratings track very closely with Live program ratings. We used to see Live ratings on a regular basis from Nielsen, but that stopped last fall. (all the ratings on our site, and anywhere else publicly, except those concerning DVR viewing are Live+Same Day).
Who made Neilson ratings “the words of TV GODs”. They ignore folks like myself who are over 50. Give me a break, those 18-34 group are either in school, college or working full time to support a family. WHO DOES THE SHOPPING IN 99% OF HOMES? Women….The people who are over 50 have more discretional spending money, not those yuppies. Most of them are working two jobs to make ends meet. Most of us are retired and have an easier life, we watch TV late and sleep late in the mornings. So I say to the Neilson’s ratings are our of wack. John Q Public don’t live in your typical target cities, we live in small town throughout the entire country. So get with the program reset the rating to reflect the true demographic of this country.
Malia, Nielsen is not the one ignoring people 50+. Nielsen measures everyone of every age group who watches TV. It’s the advertisers who ignore 50+.
Yoo act like people over 49 don’t matter. Well, guess what, by and large over 49 means you have more purchasing power. And the advertisers are idiots anyway because most people use commercial breaks to go to the bathroom…LOL….and, in my case, I DVR most shows, so I fast forward the tv ads. Advertising is wasted on me!!! I’m not surprised Dave is winning the overall battle…he’s better than Conan and always will be. AND, last night’s interview with Johnny Depp rocked!!!!
Actually Celia, Conan is better than Dave. Always has been and certainly always will be.
You are right that people over 49 have more purchasing power, but it’s the people under that age that are influencing their decisions by and large.
And if you seriously think that “advertisers are idiots” for showing commercials on TV, then you really are much dumber than you sound. Sorry to have to be the one to tell you this.
Celia, first you say advertisers should focus on your age group because you have more purchasing power, and then you say advertising is wasted on you because you fast forward through the commercials. Make some sense.
David Letterman has momentum right now. My feeling is that Conan’s ratings will continue to falter for another week or two, until Jay Leno’s fans finally make the choice to consistently stick with Dave or Conan. We’re seeing a trend; not just a Sarah Palin Apology bounce.
I’m not sure Letterman has too much momentum. He couldn’t pick up any of Leno’s old viewers; in fact, last week he was down 0.3 million viewers from his season to date average. Also, on Thursday Conan beat Letterman 3.6 to 3.0, and he’s up for the week with that.
Conan has posted the lowest numbers in the history of The Tonight Show. His 18-49 numbers are plummeting each week. What a disastrous thing NBC has done.
Billeroot,
Did you only read the Huffington Post headline or something? It wasn’t the lowest numbers in the history of the show; it was the lowest numbers since 2005 (the week Oprah was on Letterman). It’s not great news for Conan either way, but there’s a huge difference in those two scenarios.
My wife and I miss leno, we just don’t care for Conan, we will almost never watch
Conan
Malia, do you really think most people live in small towns? I know you’re online, so I know you have access to demographic information. Go read some articles on Wikipedia or something. Most of the country (81%) is urban and suburban and has been for decades.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States
Conan just start he’s new tonight show … first two week was not too good , i keep watching him and he’s day by day , better and better. Every beginning is hard , hard to Conan and was hard to Leno , Letterman , or Carson too.
We are in a rural area but because we live in a moderate sized city we are considered urban. The population counted for the term “urban” is smaller than you would think. And, yes, old folks, may be buying things for the twenty to thirty year olds, but that is not necessarily true. I actually purchase items advertised on the shows I watch. I just got a Wii for my birthday so I could play games and I turned 58. No youngster, unless you count cats, living in this household. Maybe our age group should stop watching TV altogether and then they’d want us back. And who do the networks think buy DVD sets of their shows? I buy them for me and others. I’d much rather have the actual DVD than watch off the Internet. I like to watch TV on my TV. I watch Letterman because I have always watched Letterman, even when he had the morning show. I was in the demo then. My view of Conan is neutral. Every once in a while I find him amusing. I used to like Leno, when he was on Letterman. He just lost his spark when he took over The Tonight Show. His humor was too safe and he lost his edge. He just wasn’t funny any more. I just hope he doesn’t sabotage Conan’s show. That would be awful.
I believe there is late night room for Letterman and Conan. Why does it have to be a war? Wise up advertisers, do your homework and advertise to the groups that will buy your products, so find out which show has the best viewers for your particular product and advertise accordingly. We’d all be happier. We wouldn’t be having these stupid arguments about young viewers and old viewers. My viewing habits don’t fit into neat little compartments. The movie I saw today was Transformers 2. The next movie I will see is Public Enemies, and yes, Johnny Depp was wonderful on Letterman?
Actually come to think of it, the drop in overall viewers is probably normal since we’re entering Summer (or at least the part of the year where networks start airing reruns nonstop and people spend more time vacationing than watching TV). We should really be comparing these numbers to last Summer’s numbers.
Looking at last year’s August ratings shows that The Late Show and The Tonight Show were averaging that many 18-49 viewers last summer too (well actually, Letterman was a tenth of a point below what he got this week, so he improved slightly in that demo). As for overall viewership, The Tonight Show is down almost one and a half million viewers (to be expected since Conan apparently isn’t really scoring with the older audiences), while Dave is up nearly a million. So to summarize Dave’s seen a small improvement in the 18-49 and a huge improvement overall, while Conan is matching Leno’s 18-49 numbers and not coming close to his predecessor’s overall ratings. That’s hardly bad news for Conan. The overall drop in viewership from a year ago seems to indicate that Leno had more than a few viewers who aren’t typical late-night viewers, so Conan could hardly be expected to keep pace with him. Letterman and Conan both have reason to be happy.
As you can see by what time it is, I would rather read about them then actually watch either one, I think both their shows have the same effect on a persons mind as does a bottle oh nyquil
Nobody would be happy with losing 1.5 million viewers regardless of the demographics. I know NBC is shaking in their boots right now, because if they fire Conan, he wiil move to ABC and steal some of their young viewers even if they put Leno back home. I predicted that O’Brien wouldn’t last two years, and I am right so far. It’s just a matter of time until Leno is back at 11:35 on NBC.