NBC fires back its spin of the weeks numbers. Read CBS’ spin here.
via press release:
CONAN O’BRIEN RULES THE WEEK OF JULY 6-10 IN THE KEY LATE-NIGHT RACE OF ADULTS 18-49
‘TONIGHT’ WINS FIVE OF FIVE NIGHTS OVER ‘LATE SHOW’ IN 18-49; IN THE 18-34 DEMO, CONAN DOUBLES DAVE
JIMMY FALLON ENCORES OUT-DELIVER LETTERMAN ORIGINALS IN THE VALUABLE 18-34 DEMO, DESPITE JIMMY’S LATER START TIME
IN 18-34 RATING, CARSON DALY REBROADCASTS TIE ‘LATE LATE’ ORIGINALS AND KIMMEL ENCORES
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – July 16, 2009 – NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” has delivered a decisive win for the week of July 6-10 in late-night’s key demographic of adults 18-49, beating CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman” on five of five nights. “Tonight” also more than doubled “Late Show” in the younger half of the key demo, adults 18-34.
For the week, Conan delivered bigger audiences than Letterman in adults, men and women 18-34; adults, men and women 18-49; and adults and men 25-54.
The median age of Conan’s audience last week was 46.7, more than 10 years younger than Letterman’s 57.3. 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 48.7.
“Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” scored convincing wins at 12:35 a.m. ET last week, taking the slot with encore telecasts over originals of CBS’ “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” by a 24 percent margin in 18-49 viewers and 74 percent in 18-34 viewers.
Fallon encores also delivered a bigger adult 18-34 audience than Letterman originals, though the Fallon rebroadcasts aired an hour later than the “Late Show” originals.
At 1:35 a.m. ET, encore telecasts of “Last Call with Carson Daly” (0.3 rating in 18-49) finished within a tenth of a rating point of “Late Late Show” originals (0.4) and ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” rebroadcasts (0.4). In the valuable adult 18-34 category, the “Last Call” encores tied the rating of both the “Late Late Show” originals and the Kimmel rebroadcasts (0.3 each).
For the week of July 6-10, Conan’s average 1.441 million adults 18-49 topped the 1.113 million of Letterman; in total viewers, Conan’s audience of 2.816 million persons trailed Letterman’s 3.678 million; and in adults 18-34, Conan’s 727,000 million out-scored Letterman’s 353,000. At 12:35 a.m. ET, Jimmy Fallon’s 710,000 adults 18-49 for the week out-delivered Ferguson’s 571,000; in total viewers, Jimmy’s 1.285 million trailed Ferguson’s 1.567 million; and in adults 18-34, Jimmy’s 356,000 topped Ferguson’s 205,000.
WEEKLY AVERAGES
(According to in-home viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research for the week of July 6-10. 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,” 1.1 rating, 5 share
CBS “Late Show,” 0.8/4
ABC “Nightline,” 1.0/4
12:05 a.m. ET
ABC “Kimmel,” 0.4/2 (in encore telecasts)
12:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Late Night,” 0.5/3 (in encore telecasts)
CBS “Late Late Show,” 0.4/3
1:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Last Call,” 0.3/2 (in encore telecasts)
TOTAL VIEWERS
11:35 p.m. ET
NBC “Tonight,” 2.8 million viewers
CBS “Late Show,” 3.7 million viewers
ABC “Nightline,” 3.8 million viewers
12:05 a.m. ET
ABC “Kimmel,” 1.3 million viewers (in encore telecasts)
12:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Late Night,” 1.3 million viewers (in encore telecasts)
CBS “Late Late Show,” 1.6 million viewers
1:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Last Call,” 0.8 million viewers (in encore telecasts)
SEASON TO DATE
ADULTS 18-49
11:35 p.m. ET
NBC “Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien,” 1.8/7
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,” 0.5/3
TOTAL VIEWERS
11:35 p.m. ET
NBC “Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien,” 4.5 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,” 1.1 million viewers
SELECTED CABLE RESULTS, WEEK OF JULY 6-10
NATIONAL ADULT 18-49 RATING
Comedy Central, 11 p.m. ET, “The Daily Show,” 0.5
Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m. ET, “The Colbert Report,” 0.4
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,” 1.1 million
Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m. ET, “The Colbert Report,” 0.8 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
I love over-analyzing the late night playing field!
Holy hell, Conan. I’m not willing to believe Michael Jackson frenzy had THAT big of an effect on him, while leaving Letterman untouched (nay, better than ever). He’s getting his ass handed to him in totals, and he’s losing a lot of ground in 18-49. Dave is going to crush him in both this week, I think. Paul McCartney was on, and was a trending topic on Twitter leading up to and after the show, so Dave definitely got an 18-49 victory last night.
Not that Conan’s job is in any danger like some people like to think. After all Letterman’s retiring within the next couple years, and that’ll make him the incumbent. I see a couple people here and there mentioning that CBS was ok with Letterman not being first since he was doing way better than anything else they had for the slot, and that Conan doesn’t have that luxury since Leno is still with NBC, but as long as he still brings in more money than he costs he’ll be fine (and talk shows don’t cost much, hence the appeal of The Jay Leno Show to NBC).
Meanwhile, Fallon (who I can’t stand, honestly) is looking peachy. He was in reruns, his lead-in wasn’t doing that great, and he still beat Ferguson in 18-49 and even came close in totals.
Kimmel still hates Nightline as a lead-in.
Anyone see the Emmy nominees? For ‘Outstanding Variety, Musical, or Comedy series’ (which has really become the late night category), they nominated The Colbert Report, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Late Show with David Letterman, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Saturday Night Live. I thought it was interesting, this year they opened up the nomination ballots to a much larger portion of the television industry instead of just a panel of critics, and Jay Leno still didn’t get a nomination. Even in his final year! I bet his 10 PM show will be just as critically un-acclaimed. It’s just a matter of whether he’ll still be popular with the general audience.
It’s about time to admit that Conan replacing Jay is a disaster for NBC. You can point to the 18-49 demos all you want, but the total numbers are what’s getting the most publicity these days and that can only help Dave. The couple of times I’ve checked out Conan (because of whatever guest he had on, including Michael Phelps the other night) he has consistently failed to impress me as a host. I never watched his previous show, so I have nothing to compare his performance(s). The one time he hosted the Emmy’s were good tho. JMO.
NBC really had to spin to make this week look good. Conan did not beat Dave by much in 18-49 (hence the highlighting of the 18-34 crowd) and got killed in total viewers. It’s still just the summer, but there is no way NBC is happy with these numbers.
Folks, until we get to at least November, it’s way too early to draw any conclusions.
This is like the 2nd or 3rd week in a row you guys have featured NBC’s spin of the late night results and not CBS’s. Why the bias?
Dylan, the CBS press release was featured earlier in the day. Also, the NBC press release has a lot more numbers in it for more shows than the CBS release.
Did you see this in ABC’s spin, “NBC’s “The Tonight Show” experienced the program’s lowest Total Viewer and A25-54 averages since at least the 1991/ 1992 season.” Folks, Johnny Carson was the host of The Tonight Show in 91/92. Conan has now dipped below the very lowest total viewership and A25-54 demographic of the entire run by Jay Leno.
It continues, ““Nightline” continues to experience growth season and quarter to date, and year to year. Averaging 3.77 million Total Viewers for the week, “Nightline” grew +11% versus the same week last year as, “Tonight” declined -38%.” Folks, just 12% away from half of Jay Leno’s viewers one year ago last week.
No matter how NBC spins it in their press release, internally they can not be happy right now.
like bill says, the summer is just the warm-up for the real competition in the fall.
but let’s not forget, that’s when conan’s real problem starts. jay leno goes on the air nightly at 10. even nbc execs concede that jay’s show will get significantly lower ratings than what they have now, though they expect it to be more profitable. so the nbc local affiliates will get much weaker lead-ins than cbs, and conan will inherit much weaker lead-ins from the 11:00 news.
plus, of course, conan will again feel like the second talk show on nbc, not the first.
i actually think conan’s doing a good show. all this nbc mess comes from the top. when future civilizations try to understand failing upwards in hollywood in the early 21st century, they will study jeff zucker the way catholic theologians study st. augustine.
NBC can issue all the press releases and commericals and essentially buy an Emmy nomination for Jimmy Fallon with their submission package and endless lobbying, but it doesn’t hide the fact that Jimmy Fallon is a crap interviewer doing a crappy talk show.
The fact he’s able to beat Craig Ferguson in ratings shouldn’t be crowed about much. Ferguson is keeping up with Fallon on a show that CBS refuses to promote. You don’t see them doing fancy commercials for Craig or even including him in their cheesy fall promo videos to the Black Eyed Peas, and yet he’s still close to Fallon’s numbers. Interesting.
Fallon is dandy
Conan’s numbers can only go down in the Fall. He becomes talk show host #2 again, only with a much weaker lead-in. That being said, his numbers dipping will hurt Leno, not him. For Leno’s show to stay on, he’s going to have to not only be profitable (which should be easy), but not piss off local affiliates by hurting their 11 PM news broadcasts, and not significantly hurt Conan’s numbers.
Meli, Ferguson did this well against Conan. The issue at hand for Ferguson is that while Letterman’s numbers continue to rise lately, Ferguson’s are staying where they’ve always been. This could indicate a lack of potential growth for the show. Ferguson consistently tying NBC’s Late Night was impressive when Late Night’s lead-in was pulling nearly five million viewers, but now that he’s got a better lead-in than Late Night, he’ll be expected to win. Not that his show’s in any danger or anything, his show is ridiculously cheap to produce (even for a talk show), it’s just got to be disappointing to CBS, and a potential blow to him being offered Letterman’s job in the future.
Give me a break. Letterman used the sensational Palin comments to draw attention. When that runs out of gas so will he. Conan is 10xs funnier than Letterman. This will not even be a race before long.
You can use that as an excuse until the day Letterman retires if you like, but the Palin-induced ratings bump died out weeks ago. Conan’s already won one week since the controversy started and died off (which was nearly a month ago now). Letterman’s numbers have been trending up, not down, which definitely doesn’t indicate that he’s still befitting from the overblown Palin bit. You’re free to have your own opinion about who’s funnier, but don’t kid yourself thinking a controversy that’s long been over is causing your guy to lose.
I grew up watching Conan, and never thought Letterman was funny at all. So I am rather biased, but…
Why does everyone think Conan is doing so bad?
Season to date:
Total Viewers:
11:35 p.m. ET
NBC “Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien,” 4.5 million viewers
CBS “Late Show,” 3.8 million viewers
ABC “Nightline,” 3.8 million viewers
Now this could be because of his first few weeks with everyone watching.
On another note, does it really matter if Conan is #2 at 11:35? As long as he is profitable he should be fine.
Also, do these numbers include DVR recordings? I would like to see those numbers if they are not included.
That’s exactly why his season to date is so high. He’s only been on a couple weeks and, the first of those weeks had him pulling in insanely high “let’s watch the new guy” numbers. People are saying he’s doing bad because his numbers have trended further and further down, and he’s now losing to David Letterman by about the same margin as Letterman used to lose to Jay Leno. Which honestly, isn’t bad in and of itself, especially when you consider that he’s still winning the 18-49 demographic. It’s mostly Leno fans who are shouting doom and gloom for Conan’s tenure as Tonight Show host, most everyone else is just pointing out that he’s not keeping up with Leno’s old numbers, or that Letterman may be the consistent #1 for the first time in 13-14 years.
No, it doesn’t really matter if he’s #2/#3, Dave was #2/#3 for much of Leno’s tenure, and he still did far better than CBS could ever ask for. Some people just think that since Leno is still with NBC, and Leno typically got almost twice the numbers Conan’s getting, that NBC will actually give The Tonight Show back to Jay.
I could be wrong about this, but I’m pretty sure these numbers do include DVR recordings that are watched within a certain time after they were recorded. I may be confusing the “watched within a certain time” part with Household numbers, but I’m still pretty sure DVR recordings factor into the ratings.