look for the “Conan won the demo” press release from NBC anytime now…
via CBS release:
- “LATE SHOW” REPEATS BEAT “TONIGHT SHOW” ORIGINALS!
“The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” Tops “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” for the Fourth Consecutive Week
Rebroadcasts of LATE SHOW with DAVID LETTERMAN delivered a larger audience than first-run broadcasts of “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien,” according to Nielsen live plus same day ratings for the week ending Aug. 7.
LATE SHOW delivered a 2.1/06 in households with an average of 2.95m viewers beating first-run “The Tonight Show” in households (vs. 2.0/05, +5%) and viewers (vs. 2.94m).
This marks LATE SHOW’s fifth consecutive weekly win in viewers over “The Tonight Show.”
THE LATE LATE SHOW with CRAIG FERGUSON posted a 1.1/04 in households with 1.41m viewers. THE LATE LATE SHOW beat “Late Night” in households (vs. 1.0/04, +10%) and viewers (vs. 1.39m, +1%) for the fourth consecutive week.
Haha he beat Conan only by .01m, lucky. Well I can’t wait until Dave is back next week, I’ve been watching the full episodes of Conan these past two weeks instead of flipping back and forth between the two like I usually do and I can say Conan’s show is nowhere near as funny as Late Night was. It’s such a shame.
Even though the margin is insignificant, the fact that repeats tied with originals (at least in total viewers) is very embarrassing for NBC…I wonder what the demos look like.
I don’t know how much NBC can crow about a “demos win” in a week where they aired opposite repeats.
This should be prime time for Conan. In the fall, he’s going to be the 2.5hr/3rd hour block of long talk on NBC (Jay at 10, Nightly News, then Conan)
What this really sets up is that NBC is likely to get crushed.
Leno may have his old job back sooner than anyone thought. The only smart thing NBC did was keep him under contract in the event Conan failed.
I’ve found myself watching Dave’s reruns this past week. I guess I should take the time to try watching Conan once, but Dave really is funny and is getting funnier by the night. I found myself watching things in the reruns that I must have missed first time I was watching.
GO DAVE!!!!!
Conan is improving, but not by much. But still, GO CONAN!!!
These were reruns, but it seems clear that adding to Conan and NBC’s problems is the fact that Dave perceives the opportunity he’s been given and is trying again. It’s been so long since Dave’s been into it, you could almost forget that when he’s trying, he has no peer as a talk-show host in TV history besides Johnny Carson.
And the situation will have to get worse when NBC starts doing a 10 p.m. talk show in the fall. The question is more like, how long will NBC give it before they at least make style changes to Conan’s show? November? Can they afford to wait until January?
Conan could only get a 2.0 against re-runs? Leno in his last year on the Tonight Show was averaging a 4.8. Conan has lost 60 percent of Leno’s audience. Wow, talk about an unmitigated disaster. People have given Conan a chance for the past two months and decided they don’t like him. What’s going to happen when Leno comes back next month? Conan’s going down to a 1.0? a 0.5? Do I hear… Scratch?
Panic at 30 Rock, no doubt. Sheer, utter panic.
If 10 million viewers watched a Letterman rerun and 1 18 year old watched a Conan original, NBC would rush out a press release “Conan Wins Every Key Demo!!!!”
And don’t forget tonight’s the repeat with Paul McCartney!! That should add even more viewers for this week’s average. If next week the numbers are same or similar, I can just imagine how embarrassing this must be for NBC. I kinda feel bad for them.
“Expert Analyst”, Conan got a 2.0 during the Summer. Numbers are a lot lower during the Summer. That’s not to say Conan’s doing nearly as well as Leno, but it’s not as bad as you’re making it out to be.
I really want Conan to do good!!
I don’t really get how people can statements indicating there’s a chance Conan will be withdrawn from The Tonight Show. Letterman was always beaten by Leno and he hasn’t gone anywhere. Where’s the logic that a network would completely reverse the insanely expensive; move of the entire Late Night crew to L.A., set building, marketing campaign, etc, due to a relatively small loss in viewership in that time slot in the first 6-12 months of the show’s airing?
I think people need to understand the logistics of the industry a little better before making wild assertions like that.
I am really disappointed in Conan since he took over for Jay. I never missed Jay Leno, now I can’t even stand two minutes of Conan. What the heck was NBC thinking? I don’t think Conan is funny at all, I think he is really rather disgusting and his antics are annoying. He doesn’t seem to respect his guests at all. That’s just my opinon. But after watching late night TV for 35 years and being loyal to NBC, I think they really screwed up big this time. I can’t wait for Jay to come back.
Johnny, I think that the loss in viewers is more than relatively small, especially considering that this move was by no means necessary and that their long-term ratings stability and victories in the slot, one of NBC’s few bright spots, have vanished in a little over two months. I agree that it’s a little early to talk about the demise of Tonight with Conan, but at some point, NBC will realize that they’ll have to eat their investments from the marketing campaign, set building, etc, in order to regain what they had. That’s the difference between Dave and Conan: Dave improved upon his predecessor. Conan dropped significantly from first place, and regardless of the spin that he’s winning in the 18-49 demographic against repeats, this is a serious issue.
Always enjoy Craig. I simply cannot watch Conan – can’t stand the way he continually claps his hands during his monologue. Maybe I am not the only one that this bugs to distraction??
Thanks SueMaple, Conan claps his hands after every joke. STOP IT!!! Can his producer not see this? I bet he claps his hands 50 times during his monologue. Its almost like he’s begging the audience to clap for him!!! He is not funny at ALL!! Will be done before 2009 is over!!!
What in the world was NBC thinking when they agreed to do the Leno show before the news, then Conan??? I thought it was crazy then and its proved to be. Conan’s comedy is too cheesey and immature for that time of demographic. Having a show that features all guy guests on his show and then having that obnoxious voice (which is that of the geeky writer) scream “ITS A LATE NIGHT SAUSAGE FEST,” is not something that “after the news,” demographic appreciates. Conan would be much funnier if he would just be himself as opposed to doing cheesey laughs. After Conan you have Jimmy Fallon, which was a terrible, awful idea. I don’t know whose idea it was to put this train wreck on the tracks but it derailed before it got on the tracks.
I don’t really get how people can statements indicating there’s a chance Conan will be withdrawn from The Tonight Show. Letterman was always beaten by Leno and he hasn’t gone anywhere.”
Not that I agree that NBC will take The Tonight Show away from Conan, but those are two different situations. Letterman came to CBS, which could not get a late night program to do even modestly well, and cut into The Tonight Show’s dominance big time. Even if he wasn’t winning, it was a victory for CBS because they had not only taken away NBC’s 12:30 superstar, but had also created a show that could compete with The Tonight Show (before Letterman got the Late Show, The Tonight Show would absolutely crush any competing program).
Conan, however, is taking over a show which was #1 in its time slot for almost fourteen years straight, and the guy he took it from is still contracted to NBC. So the idea many people have is that since Conan’s move to The Tonight Show has yielded a negative result (unlike CBS’ acquisition of Letterman), and since Jay is still at NBC, NBC can move Jay beck to The Tonight Show when they want. This idea is further fueled by little things like the way NBC left The Tonight Show’s studio (that has belonged to The Tonight Show since Johnny Carson was host) to Jay Leno instead of remodeling it for Conan.
“Where’s the logic that a network would completely reverse the insanely expensive; move of the entire Late Night crew to L.A., set building, marketing campaign, etc,”
As expensive as that move may have seemed, it’s really pretty inexpensive for a big network like NBC. If they really wanted to boot Conan, they could use his new studio for another show. The only thing that COULD be expensive about booting Conan is that I’m sure Conan made sure there was a clause in his contract wherein they’d have to pay him a large sum of money if he did not get The Tonight Show.
“due to a relatively small loss in viewership in that time slot in the first 6-12 months of the show’s airing?”
It’s a little more than “relatively small”, although he IS still winning the demos, so there’s that.
But NBC still won’t give The Tonight Show back to Leno. It’d be a PR nightmare, first of all. They’d still have to pay Conan’s (likely multimillion dollar) contract for him to host Late Night again, or even to host nothing at all if they want to keep Fallon. Plus Conan’s an investment. Sure he’s losing now, but Letterman’s likely retiring in 2012, and that’s when Conan will become the incumbent, giving him the advantage of audience familiarity.
Those who think NBC can backtrack are way wrong. There are too many things that prevent it, including the fact it would equal 5 hours a week of unplanned programming at the 10PM(EST) time slot that Jay will now occupy.. move him anywhere, and suddenly NBC has a lot of expensive content to come up with in a hurry.
Won’t happen. They made their bed and get to lie in it. And, while people kept thinking “Dave will retire in 2012″, if the man starts winning repeatedly, it may be a bit too fun to quit. There were rumors in the 80s for years about Carson’s retirement.. different potential hosts got guest shots (Joan Rivers, Gary Shandling, Brenner, etc.)
In fact, I keep waiting for Dave to trot that out as a real throw back: “guest host”
So, if Leno gets his old slot back does this help Chuck get renewed? (kidding)
Anyway, this is pretty bad for Conan. As mentioned it was basically a tie. But, a tie with a rerun is very, very worrisome.
GE needs to sell NBC to someone not afraid to run it, or hire someone to run NBC who has a clue. Conan is unwatchable for anyone over 18. And I doubt Leno’s new show will work if up against good scripted stuff. CBS and ABC will have their best stuff competing with Leno the first season, if only to discredit the approach. If Leno still succeeds, they will come back at him with similar low cost competition the next season. At that point folks will go to be even earlier… The internet etc., isn’t ruining TV, the networks are. Leno was perfect where he was. It wasn’t broke until an overpaid somebody “fixed” it.
I am a long-time Conan fan and his new show just sucks. The monologues have been awful – Cheney and Clinton jokes, STILL? The comedy bits haven’t been funny. He’s being forced to do some oddball corporate promotions that are mostly uninteresting early in the show – it’s got to be turning off viewers. His music guests are trending to bland American Idol style corporate rock and it’s AWFUL!
cheney and clinton jokes still? hold on. this is dave’s bread and butter. clinton has been back in the news obviously last week with north korea. in the past day or two cheney has had some stories on him as he’s been talking about bush. at least those jokes came from something that was actually current. dave on the other hand is always making cheney shooting a guy in the face jokes. then there’s the occasional larry craig and monica lewinsky joke i remember in the past couple of months. these were not topical at all. i read a comment last week saying that dave’s monologue was great and the top ten list was still solid. couldnt agree less but hey its an opinion. dave and his awful jokes about potholes and the weather? come on not to mention his horrible friday shows that he tapes on mondays. i cant guess specifically what conan will makes jokes about on any given night. regardless of the news i can guess dave will talk about bernie madoff’s new wife ‘walt’, ruth madoff saving her own money by switching to geico or keeping her tires properly inflated, still milking sarah palin talking about apologizing to someone, mention the fire dave rally thats 5 weeks old, bernie madoff countdown clock, statue of liberty picture and top ten list with maybe two funny entries on a good day. not mention whatever the joke is that he’s currently recycling every day for 2-3 weeks. come one thats not good writing
and these are specific jokes….conan’s lexus commericial and other recurring bits arent a good counter
[To TSA]
Don’t forget that Conan was only even moved to The Tonight Show because of his threats to get a better time slot with another network. Think about what would happen if Conan got the boot from The Tonight Show. He would just take his huge opt out settlement that you mentioned and go make another show for someone else and be even more competition for NBC.
No, I think all of this “Conan getting booted” talk is absolutely ridiculous – right now – and is simply being fooled by us bored T.V. number bean counters with nothing better to debate about at the moment.
And can we get some Daily Show/Colbert Report numbers please? Or are they already around and I’m missing something?
NBC cannot program TV at all! They let their ratings gold in Leno go?
Hey Hector, welcome back! Listen, Kenneth is just pointing out that Conan does what every late night host does – he uses well-tread material for comedic effect because they are references he knows the audience will immediately understand. Sure, Letterman uses these touchstones over and over, probably more than O’Brien. Some would find that to be overbearing, others find the repetition to add to the humor. It’s all in the eye of the beholder and, to a large extent, how it is handled. Repetition is not a question of good or bad writing, however. The writers are doing what the host wants. It’s obvious over the years that Dave loves repeating jokes, and it’s what he wants his writers to write. And, as of right now, it’s clearly what America wants to see, even in reruns.
Speaking of repetition, Hector, do you enjoy watching the nightly commercial for Lexus on Tonight? When I watch, it’s been an entire segment of the show, and most if it is a full on, out-and-out advertisment for the car, with nominal comedic value. Is this the kind of humor you are tuning in for?
I am not buying it. Yes, Conan is doing better demographically, but advertisers can pay less to reach these people on cable where Conan’s show is demographically speaking. Also, I do not understand how NBC-U can spin all of teh numbers. DAVE is number 1 by over a million viewers. Sooner or later there will be safety in numbers. The more viewers, the more spread out the demographics will become. Does anyone disagree with me?
Like it or not, Jay will NOT be returning to the “Tonight Show,” so that is completely out of the question. Mother Zucker, who is a weasel in my opinion, needs to go because he has single handedly destroyed the NBC brand.
As a life long viewer of the “Tonight Show” never have I been more upset at the transition. From Jack Paar to Johnny Carson to Jay Leno and now to Conan O’Brien. Now I may be older, “demographically challenged” as I like to call it, I am of the thinking that NBC/U did the right thing in handing the reigns over to its most cherished late night institution to Conan O’Brien because for the past five years, they got the best of both worlds. They probably thought that Jay would peter out but instead remained number one. Give COCO time to grow. Letterman he ain’t, no one is. Dave is King for a while and I could not be happier since he got screwed when he was passed over to replace Johnny.
NBC needs Conan to do his comedy the way he did it on “Late Night.”
Conan promised the audience on the final “Late Night with COB” that his version of the “Tonight Show” would feel like the show he was leaving.
But, this hasn’t happened; it’s a watered-down mess.
Andy Richter needs to be the sidekick on the couch, not off to the side behind an announcer’s podium (Joel Goddard was a better announcer, also.)
In summary, I think NBC wanted to “retain” the “Tonight Show” audience, and that means restraining Conan’s antics.
The better thing to do, however, was let Conan do it in his style, and to he** with the established audience (who apparently tuned out after Jay’s “Tonight Show”.)
I remember Jay’s first “Tonight Show” episode–there was a definite change of style and tone from Johnny’s tenure.
I have been enjoying Conan Over David. Same goes for Ferguson and Fallon. Fallon wins. NBC will always be the king of late night no doubt about that.
Wow – how many people here really think NBC is going to stick with Conan when numbers continue to be this low? With Letterman in repeats Conan should be ticking up to at least the 3.5 – 4 million range. Instead, people would rather watch repeats of Letterman when they never watched Letterman before, lol.
I think the one sure thing is that if Leno does end up bombing in primetime, which I’m thinking might be a stretch now, he will easily end up taking back his old job at Tonight. Where that would leave Conan I don’t know. If Leno does well at 10pm, will they stick with Conan with those ratings?
The Conan show just doesn’t work in LA. There was a certain energy of being in NYC that made his show watchable. Johnny and Jay were LA guys; Conan is not.
I’m interested to see what the time shifting info would be including views on Hulu for shows like Jimmy Fallon. I’ll agree I don’t watch every episode of jimmy but I do watch it on Hulu when I do. I don’t think that the rating system counts the online views into the equation enough.
Johnny says:
August 14th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
[To TSA]
Don’t forget that Conan was only even moved to The Tonight Show because of his threats to get a better time slot with another network.
Johnny,
This isn’t true. It could better be chalked up as a) an implied threat, since Conan & his people didn’t make much of a push, though it was readily discussed by talking heads b) more substantially, another error by NBC, having no clue what they’re doing, as well as trying to think ahead, by promising Conan The Tonight Show 5 years out (ridiculous then, ridiculous now). They just made a similar mistake, taking away their 10-11 programming for Leno.
In short, no one at NBC knows what they’re doing and if you know a soul over there in any capacity, you’re agree.
Bill, you are wrong. Conan had offers from both ABC and Fox to move to an earlier time slot. Fox made a strong offer that would have moved him to 11:00 to lead out of their local news and get a jump on the other late night competition. Conan did not take these offers, but NBC clearly saw the writing on the wall and knew that unless they made O’Brien happy, he would eventually move on.
Rob Riggle needs to start pressing his suit collection
richard less says:
August 14th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
NBC needs Conan to do his comedy the way he did it on “Late Night.”
…it’s a watered-down mess.
—
Exactly what I’ve said in past discussions. If NBC is willing to give up the total viewers fight for the demo, then let Conan off the leash and let him attract the demo.
Especially with Leno at 10pm covering the middle-of-the-road, watered down humor thing so well.
“I don’t really get how people can statements indicating there’s a chance Conan will be withdrawn from The Tonight Show. Letterman was always beaten by Leno and he hasn’t gone anywhere.”
That’s not true AT ALL. Leno had higher ratings during Leno for his past 5 years there which was why it was a stupid decision to let him go for Conana who’s ratings where actually declining and were actually on par with Craig who was a relative new comer.