After both being in repeats the previous week, Conan’s Tonight Show topped Letterman’s Late Show in the adults 18-49 demo for the week ending October 30. Their four week averages continue neck and neck.
There was some spirited debate attached to my original post about the disappearance of Conan’s adults 18-49 lead over Letterman and whether it might be the start of a long term trend. That’s still an open question.
The trend lines above are 4 week moving averages.
For our weekly compilation of Late Night Ratings releases click here.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Has Craig Ferguson caught Fallon in that demo yet — I know Ferguson is killing Fallon in viewers, but what about 18-49?
Let me start off by saying that Craig has caught Fallon (the biggest disgrace of a human being to have ever come out of the northeast). I compare him to Soledad “I’m black, trust me”, “Actually I’m half black, but that qualifies” “I know I look white but I’m half black” O’brien.
Alot of dots at 1.0 for Conan, alot of dots at 0.8 for Letterman.
And a checkmark for you on the Am I one of Conan’s hopeless cling-ons.
Jon, why the knock on Fallon? Does he have skeletons in the closet?
jon, your bitterness led you to a faulty conclusion. The question at hand is of a ratings trend. I pointed out the mode average. A better conclusion would have been that I think that is where the numbers will settle. Besides, how could one be hopeless when the numbers are so close?
Craig has done well matching Fallon in the ratings and personally I don’t find Fallon all that funny. Craig on the other hand is great.
I agree Zodd. Craig is naturally funny where most comedians need written material. What he does on the Late Show is really remarkable.
He’s funny-SILLY too, and you rarely see that these days.
I second that @ KK…Craig is one of a kind!
I like Craig Ferguson too. Based on the daily numbers posted here lately, Ferguson usually matches Fallon in adults 18-49, both getting around an 0.5 in the demo. Sometimes one will go up to an 0.6 or 0.7 and beat the other. But unfortunately, Fallon usually beats Ferguson in 18-34s and often by a significant margin. I can’t understand why. (Maybe the Roots have something to do with it? Because I have no idea why anybody would tune in for Fallon himself.)
Despite his silliness, I think Craig’s a bit more cerebral than Fallon. Jimmy’s more of a traditional joke guy.
Does anyone really tune in for “The Roots”? I never got the connection between Fallon and this band.
Fallon is unwatchable, while Craig is the funniest man on television, period. Long live the Scottish Conan guy. Love him. The 18-34 problem is probably his lead in. I love Dave, too. But the audience he’s delivering to CF is, by industry reckoning, a bit “too old”.
Way to overtake the perv Conan!
Don’t underestimate the public looking at David Letterman and being disgusted when they’re supposed to be laughing…then change the channel. It’s only a matter of time.
The “controversy” over Letterman’s “scandal” is over already. They WOMEN were apparently over the age of consent and NO ONE has alleged it was anything but consensual. What did he do that was so disgusting? His wife (and his mom) may be pissed off, but it’s really nobody else’s business. Let it go already.
Typical Letterman show,jokes about Cheney *insert organ music and the bass guy screaming*, then Sarah Palin bashing, then still picking on McCain eating soup at Apple-bee’s. Still doing jokes on Bush, his monologue is the same old crap. Don’t care about his private life just turn his show back to a Steve Allen goofy show instead of putting his liberal BS on it every night.