Dave’s run of post-confession 18-49 demo wins is broken.
Directly from NBC:
In Late-Night Local People Meters Friday night:
Conan O’Brien (1.0/4 in 18-49 in local people meters) beat CBS’s LATE SHOW (0.8/3) in Nielsen’s 24 local markets with People Meters. Conan also prevailed in adults 18-34 (0.8/4 vs. 0.4/2). At 12:35 a.m., Jimmy Fallon (0.6/3 in 18-49 in local people meters) topped CBS’s LATE LATE SHOW (0.5/3). Jimmy also prevailed in 18-34 (0.5/3 vs. 0.3/2).
Bill, I’m guessing that is NBC’s press release and not yours. Having said that, I find it amusing that everyone in the media sticks up for Conan. Why??? Because he’s from the northeast and he’s liberal?
If he wasn’t such a media darling, his ridiculously ugly mug would be on the front cover of Time and Newsweek proclaiming him (the redheaded freak who used to be funny in the 90s) a failure.
Oh great, so Conan beat Letterman in the 18-49. Letterman is an old boring geezer, he should beat him. The most retarded thing the media doeesn’t report is that Leno averaged a 1.3 18-49, and Conan only gets 1.1.
Jon, while it did come from NBC it wasn’t actually a press release, but it’s pretty much just the numbers. I hardly think its “sticking up” for anything.
Bill, one simple way to fix that is not to include the “directly from NBC”. I’m sure NBC won’t mind (and might prefer it that way!).
Jon, when it comes to reporting numbers NBC has been very good about providing them even during all the nights Letterman won the demos, NBC still provided them, not as a press release, but just as information. In this way, they have been one of the the most open and transparent of the networks, if not the most open and transparent.
The freak show effect has worn off for now. Letterman’s two most recent ratings peaks were during his spat with Sarah Palin and the revelation that he is a slutty talkshow host. Look for Letterman to continue using bad taste to get higher ratings.
The only thing I’m upset at, and I am furious, is how nobody in the media is jumping all over Conan claiming he’s a failure. It’s like there is a secret society and nobody in the media will write anything bad about Conan. I mean, Cmon.
This reminds me of how the media loves “Big Papi” when he tests positive for roids, makes up some excuse saying he used over the counter supplements and all is forgiven.
All I’m saying Bill and Robert, is that Conan is loved by the left wing media and they won’t talk bad about him. And, Cmon, I’m right.
You don’t tamper with success.
Maybe the right decision was to keep Jay at 11:30 where he dominated for years and have Conan give it a go in prime time, possibly as a sketch show Monday through Thursday and throw a Dateline in the slot on Friday. O’Brien is much better at doing comedy, especially remotes, than he is behind a desk.
Jon, the reason the media has no declared Conan a failure is not because he is a media “darling,” it is because he is NOT a failure. the #’s and show prove that fact. Just because you feel that way, doesn’t mean it’s right? Hasn’t anyone taught you that yet? Well, obviously not. Hopefully, I just did.
Sorry for the typos, and also Jon, using the word “retarded” is not cool.
Angela, I have a question?
Do you like Conan, or DID you like Conan.
Conan hasn’t been funny in 3 years.
Trust me, I know what I’m talking about.
Jon, you clearly don’t “know what [you're] talking about” if you’re trying to pass off your opinion (”Conan hasn’t been funny in 3 years”) as fact. Learn to be less hostile, you sound like a child.
Jon- If your theory about Conan being left alone by the media because he’s a liberal was true it would apply even more so to Letterman who is an openly far left liberal.
Conan isnt the failure. Conan puts on the funniest, best written show of the network talk shows (thus excluding colbert and stewart too even though i dont like stewart all that much). But Conan didn’t make the decision to boot out Leno and have him take over the tonight show. Of course he wanted to host the tonight show, but it was NBC who did it. (zucker?). anyway
Conan isn’t a failure for getting worse numbers than Leno. Everyone knew that was going to happen. Nobody thought (in the past 2 years) that conan would get better numbers (even the younger demos) than leno. Leno averaged almost 5 millions viewers. Yeah his audience skewed older but a smaller 18-49 percentage of 5 million is going to give you more than Conan’s larger 18-49 percentage of 2.4-3 million viewers.
Maybe the argument can be made that NBC execs thought in 2004 that Leno would lose some of his dominance by 2009 and therefore agreed to the Conan in/Leno out scenario. Either way, what we do know is that in 2004, Kimmel was struggling, Ferguson wasn’t even on the air yet, and Conan was the King at 12:30 that NBC didnt want to lose to another network.
This was all set in motion 5 years ago not 5 months ago, remember. NBC didn’t want to lose Conan then, and they surely didnt wanted to lose Leno now, and theyve been the 4th place network for years. This wasn’t a spur of the moment decision someone made because they thought Conan would trounce Leno’s numbers.
Historical question for you, Bill:
My impression is that, from the beginning of the Tonight/Late Night, Letterman/Leno battle, Letterman was, (1) originally, winning in over-alls and demos until the Hugh Grant “incident”, then (2) Leno had the over-alls while Letterman maintained a win in the demos for a number of years, followed by (3) a period where they contested the demos, and finally (4) a period where Leno swept over-alls AND demos (the last few years, ’til the end of Leno’s Tonight tenure). Is this basically how it played out? And can you give rough date approximations for these periods?
It’s hardly surprising that the Tonight Show, today, stresses the demographic win, considering that (1) it’s all they’ve got, and (2) didn’t the Late Show do the same for so many years?
Robert Marino, unfortunately my knowledge of TV numbers *prior* to 2007 (when we started the site) is very incomplete and filled in only by the fragmentary historical data I have been able to cobble together, which doesn’t include good late night broadcast ratings history.
That said, my memory of the late night trends is approximately the same as yours, but as with my memory (don’t get Robert started), it cannot be relied upon.
As for press releases stressing whatever positives exist, that’s just the natural law of PR
I’m glad you specified that you don’t have any numbers before 2007 Bill. I was looking for them.
Bill, do you or Robert know the specifics of Craig Ferguson’s contract? I think it is coming up soon. It seems to me like Ferguson is getting tired of his show, he wants to do something else but he knows the money is so good on Late late show.
Who won all viewers category is the real winner in my view.