Okay, I am wrong. I was hoping to see lackluster numbers, because Jay Leno never really went away. I think that the only thing that I can predict on the Neilsen numbers is that I consistantly make the bottom in terms of what most people watch.

Lets be fair. He’s riding the backs of some people very popular in the media right now. Lets see what the numbers are in a few weeks when it returns to the same old Leno.

For NBC’s sake I hope it holds but I doubt it will.

Tuned in at top of show…. same ol’ Leno jokes got dumb after about 90 seconds, went to bed.

JT, I was fair in noting the numbers would likely be inflated the first week or two, and also noted it was his first night back.

I don’t think Leno will hold on to that wide of a margin for a while, but it won’t surprise me if he/NBC hold onto the lead.

Like Zangadoo I wanted to see if anything was different. I lasted a couple of minutes and flipped over to Letterman.

the new king of late night!

If these numbers hold up, get ready to put out the inevitable NBC press release…

They’ll jump at any chance they can get.

not a surprise at all. and the media is killing him this morning. it’s overkill. the general public doesn’t care as much as much as the media thinks we do.

he’ll fall to his usual levels in a week or two, but he will still beat letterman on a daily basis. and the critics will cry.

I agree that you need to wait a couple of weeks but he will still blow Conan’s numbers out the water!

I do not think that he will maintain his previous tonight show numbers pre-Conan but I do believe that he will continue to beat Letterman!

I Didnt even know he was back yet

He will still beat Connan numbers and Letterman.

He just fits better for late night TV and letterman never gained any audiance for 10 years, doubt people will switch to him because leno is back.

Leno will keep the same numbers he had last year and beat letterman to a pulp.

Robert, a rhetorical “Lets be fair.” Not directed to you. Sorry.

You stated it perfectly, and I find his buzz worthy guest choices a bit of a distraction to the fact that he is still the same Leno.

@Zangadoo summed it up best.

He’ll beat Dave in the numbers most likely (though I’d love to be proved wrong) because, lets face it, he caters to a lazy audience. Which is a big audience. I don’t…really care though because Letterman’s doing great shows and it’s not like CBS is taking him off anytime soon. I kind of doubt Letterman fully gives a shit about winning in ratings anymore, to be honest

His numbers will fall back once people realize its the same old bad joke delivery vehicle it ever was. And why people want to continue to see that overexposed skank skier Vohn is beyond most of us from Colorado. We all just wish she’d go away!

This just underscores what a disaster Conan was.

I am glad Jay is back. He is much more entertaining – and understandable – than Conan ever was. Letterman is nothing but a progressive lech.

on the other hand…in terms of ratings…

Weakest Tonight Show Debut Ever?

His first primetime show got 17 million viewers and we saw how that worked out.
Trust me, Leno is now unpopular and reviled. The numbers will soon be worese than his old Tonight Show ever was.

For a Winter Olympic promoted first show, I think the numbers are disappointing. I expected 50% higher numbers.

Conan’s debut totally CRUSHED these numbers..

Highly promoted prior to its premiere on the late night scene, ratings for the debut episode were higher than both CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman and ABC’s Nightline combined, with a 7.1 rating and a 17 audience share.[14]

Not much of a debut really, the same old show, first at 11:30, then at 10, now back @ 11:30.

Numbers could be higher, but i doubt there will be that much of a drop, probably to mid-high 3s.

I’m not a late night watcher but I watched last night and was reminded of why Jay works so well there. It isn’t that he’s particularly funny or innovative it’s that he’s affable and he gives late night viewers what they come for (interviews with the Who’s Who of show biz).

The “Quest for a Desk” segment was the perfect example. Conan couldn’t do a segment like that because he’d think it beneath him but what made that fun to watch was how Jay interacts with everyday people. It drove home the point of “this is a guy people will invite into their home every night”

Bottom Line: In the game of mass appeal affability wins over innovation every time.

I just watched for Lindsay Vohn. I was hoping they would explore her injured shin, as I really don’t feel that that has been adequately reported on yet.

Remember Jay’s prime time show had decent numbers the first week. But as people get used to his return it will become more competitive, but I think that there is a good chance “Tonight” will once again lead Late Night. Though personally I find Letterman much funnier.

Wow, I’m shocked! Not. Of course Leno got great numbers after all the hoopla. Lots of people tuned in to see what all the fuss was about and what would Jay say about it and how ‘different’ the Tonight Show would be now. I didn’t watch; was it ‘different’ and exciting?

@CiCi

Just badmouth Leno, what did Vohn ever do to disgust you?

@KellenDunk – You probably think you’re making Conan look good but given where his numbers ended up I think your post does just the opposite

I thought his return show was LAME.

@ Shiran

What do you mean by “lazy audience”?

Are implying that anyone who watches Leno, is lazy. But anyone who doesn’t watch TV at 11:30, watches Letterman, or has fantasy dreams about CoCo is not lazy?

@tom “The “Quest for a Desk” segment was the perfect example. Conan couldn’t do a segment like that because he’d think it beneath him but what made that fun to watch was how Jay interacts with everyday people. It drove home the point of “this is a guy people will invite into their home every night” ”

Conan did TONS of man-on-the-street around LA segments

I thought lastnight’s numbers, too, would be significantly higher. It’s doubtful if they will fo much higher than these “debut” numbers except on special occasions.

Dave and Jay will likely be neck and neck most of the time.

I flipped back and forth…there really is a difference. Leno’s show was tired for many years. When I flipped to Dave, I was laughing a lot, when I had Jay on, I just groaned. I do like how they redid the Jay Leno Show set…though I wish they would do away with that phoney hand slapping at the beginning of the show. You’ll never convince me all those people are clammoring to meet Jay Leno.

Forget Leno. Letterman should be more concerned about the consistent losses to Nightline.

My only quibble is with the comment that “all is forgiven.” People tuned in because of the controversy. As has been said, let’s see where things are in a month (if not a couple of weeks). I’m not a Leno fan, at least as the Tonight Show host, but even allowing for that I thought the monologue was incredibly weak.

Really who cares,abot leno or dave they are both boring!!!!

Just say NO to LeNO!

I watched for about 2 minutes out of morbid curiosity and couldn’t take anymore. Not only was he not funny(as usual), but everytime I see that mammoth chin of his, I’m gonna be reminded of how he screwed Conan out of The Tonight Show.

Lets be honest. Leno is a very likeable person and Letterman is a nasty old fart.

Conan sucks with his 12 yr old humor. Get over it. Look for him on FOX this fall. Glad to see a real talent back on the worst managed network on TV. They need to dump Zucker regardless of how the ratings pan out. His prime time stinks and he really did a bad job with Conan/Jay.

How does this compare to Conan’s last Tonight Show I wonder?

I hate leno.. His jokes stink, his chin is huge, and he is one of the worst late night standups I have ever seen. Ugh..

I agree with Robert. Jay will keep the lead probably forever, since his audience is different than Conan’s. However, this double number lead over Letterman will drop once his huge guest names drops, and time goes on. I still think he’ll beat Dave though. Not HAPPY about it, but what can you do?

I need to stop sleeping with the tv on. Sorry Conan.

They should give leno a primetime slot

Maybe the reason why Letterman is losing to Nightline is that he’s not funny.

Letterman certainly COULD do the much better show — and he used to, before he switched from comedy to 100% leftist politics a couple of years ago. He’s no longer watchable, and would be better off somewhere out on “cable” with the likes of Maher and Olbermann.

Cico, Vonn is no skank. It’s just unfortunate that she got injured. If she wasn’t injured, she would have won more gold medals.

Not a big surprise, people were bound to tune in out of curiosity. Tivo’d both shows and Dave’s was better. It’s hard to beat Bill Murray as a guest.

watching a mushroom grow for an hour would beat Letterman – he ceased being remotely humorous decades ago.

LECHERMAN goes down again!

It looks like a lot of sore Conan the Insipid and Letterman the Sexual Harasser fans here!

Happy to see Leno crush that loathsome gap-toothed buffoon!

Leno is a more likable guy than Letterman, period!

Twitter tracker alert…Conan’s figured out how to fill his time now.

http://twitter.com/conanobrien

This was expected. Any kind of premiere from a popular show is going to dominate in the ratings. It’s too bad NBC can’t call every show a premiere episode! =P

I want to stick with my guns and say that Leno will still go down hill from here. If he doesn’t I feel really bad for Conan.

Both Leno and Letterman are tired.

Badger, you and your neoconservative viewpoints need to be considerate and tolerate other peoples viewpoints. Tolerate others whose viewpoints differ from yours.

Leno is NOT that funny. His claim to fame is insulting people. He does not deliver funy comments. He picks peoples weaknesses and faults and mistakes and ridicules them. Anyone can do that. Its not a comedian, its a hack.

You want great late night entertainment, Jimmy Fallon

Screw Letterman the Liberal Dirt Bag -wife cheating low life- now we have a real star to watch-

he’s going to beat letterman again with no problem. letterman has not been funny for a long time and he is too far to the left for most Americans. he is nasty and a pervert. leno is not that funny either, but he comes across as a nice person.

Where’s the rating intern?

glad Jay is back. Letterman is a cynical sour on life dude …

It was good to see Jay back. One complaint: Bush jokes, Bush left over a year ago, and Jay is still doing Bush/cheney jokes, can’t you do current Obama jokes?

I’ve never really liked letterman and now I know he is a two timing cheater I dislike him even more. the one thing that annoys me about his show is they must have an applause sign going of way to much after ever joke he gets the clapping going even if the joke wasn’t to great.

Jay is just more likeable….

Instead of replacing Conan, they should have put him on the Weather channel so he could point to hurricanes with his chin

Way to go, I hope he does it every single night. Leno is the people’s comedian. David is, sorry I forgot.
What happened was sad because Conan is a good guy but it wasn’t Jay’s fault. I hope the network doesn’t die before the end of Leno’s show.

Letterman was OK decades ago BUT when he leaned to left wing nutjob, his ratings tanked.. It is the same with most lefty media now. Airamerica went broke, abc, cbs are bottom feeders..Even libs don’t believe their own BS.. Conservative media ..Fox..drudge..are drawing top ratings.

What these Bozos (no offend intended to Bozo)do not understand is that one thing is being funny and another thing is being mean. Johnny Carson and Leno are bipartisan jokers. And yet, their jokes never crossed the line into mean personal vile, like Letterman, Maher and Arsenio Hall. That is what killed Arsenic Hall and Letterman. They were clearly partisan and in the case of Letterman he even went after the children of politicians. They deserve what they get, especially the hypocrite Letterman. Inside political jokes do not work.

While they may be down from Conan’s heavily promoted Tonight Show debut, I have no doubt whatsoever that Leno’s numbers won’t sink as low as Conan’s did

Give it a few weeks, the “We hate Jay Leno” media/Team CoCo will be off their high horses and eating crow. They’ll stop the excessive bashing and find something better to do

Let’s not forget that that same old Jay Leno has been number one the entire time he’s been at the helm of Late Night! You Jay Leno haters don’t get it, number 1 is number 1. Also how is Leno the bad guy here? His idiot,incompetent bosses at NBC took the number 1 host off the air in favor of a guy who could never capture an audience the size that Leno does and anyone with a brain knew that. Conan is funny, but let’s be honest here his schtick is limited and that is exactly what his incompetent bosses found out and ran back to Leno to put them back where they were when he left at number one, where he will stay! That is why Letterman is pissed, he could care less about Conan or anyone else, isn’t that obvious! Leterman knew he could beat Conan and knows he can’t beat Jay and he’s all sour grapes! Back to number 2 Dave where you belong! If you want to fire someone fore the idiot incompetent decision makers at NBC who made the change and tried to paint Jay the bad guy to cover their own incompetent a$$es! And as usual Jay took all the undeserved shots and let his performance do the talking and with class all the way, something his rivals are completely incapable of. Go Jay!

The bit where Leno goes to people’s houses and looks for desk put the “bad” in bad tv. Leno going into homes in LA that go for a couple million dollars is not Leno going to homes of the average joe.

Why all the Leno hatred in the comments? It sounds like there’s an overabundance of people cheering for Leno to fail.

rhonda.. Are you kidding? Jokes about The Leader, The Chosen One, The Messiah?

Letterman is a bitter old turd. never was funny, just a sarcastic & full of hate for everyone who doesn’t see things his way. Leno will trounce him in the ratings

The Leno show wasn’t much to write home about. Foxx and Vonn were pleasant, but that’s the best that could be found for show #1? Seriously?

And the uninspired Letterman/Murray interchange was even worse.

We already know that Conan was a drain on the ratings.

And Nightline isn’t worth anybody’s time.

Heaven help late night TV.

who cares. they are both just clowns keeping people from getting the sleep they need for good health. just a three-ring circus full of bozos.

Personally, I don’t care one way or the other. When I do watch TV, which is rarely, I will usually pick Leno over Letterman or O’Brien. But it’s okay with me if you choose otherwise.

But, for those that make a big political thing out of this, I have five words: NYA, NYA NYA, NYA NYAAAAA!

I like Leno — despite all of the criticism he receives from those few who think that they represent the majority.

Leno seems to appeal to middle class Americans and conservatives (even though he isn’t really conservative). However, Leno goes on the streets, eats at the Big Boy and gets his hands dirty in old cars. Letterman, on the other hand, gets his hands dirty in 19 yr old interns that he employs.

Conan was funny…but not with a middle class America slant. Conan just tried too hard to identify with regular Americans…and it showed. He would get an A for effort…but a B- for delivery.

Ultimately, I find Leno genuinely funny…Conan funny too…and Letterman as a dirty, cynical, dishonest old man who reminds me of a witty version of Joe Biden.

Who cares? A couple of unfunny old men who read other people’s words off cards and get paid millions of dollars to do it. How incredibly boring and unoriginal.

I’m sure you’re all waiting with baited breath for my take. Well here it is. I like Leno, he’s not a nudge nudge, wink wink, know what I mean smart ass host. However they both come on too late for me, I need my sleep, nudge nudge, wink wink.

I see all the right wing wackos have checked in.

It’s inevitable that Leno has lost part of his audience forever. The only question is how much of the audience? Most people cut Leno some slack for the way things went down after Carson. After the way Leno refused to leave and has crawled back to the Tonight Show he will always be remembered as a scumbag.

If people are fine watching a scumbag, that’s fine. There’s an audience for everything.

“Sure, Leno’s first night back (and perhaps first week or two back) is likely inflated by a post-Olympic halo, but the early indication is “all is forgiven.””

I lol’d.

So, it’s his return to TTS. It’s *also* inflated by the Olympics. But there’s an early indication that “all is forgiven” to be read here?
Didn’t that sound like a bit of a stretch before you typed it?

What makes Leno work is not that his jokes knock your socks off everytime. It’s that they are delivered with good tempo (and with participation from the band) and the overall segment is entertaining and usually worth staying up for. Personally, I stay up for the jokes and early skits and pick and chose guests, and usually catch them via DVR the next day. Conan’s jokes were painful. He seemed to spend half of his alloted time dealing with actual or perceived audience reaction to what he delivered. And there was the silly slap stick stuff that seemed to be a total waste of time. In fact, there seemed to be so many moments that seemed to be just killing time instead of smoothly flowing along. The band was a disaster to me. Great band, but you could get any band to play a huge opening and then just sit there. Anyway, I watched Conan the first week and then DVR’d for a few more nights and watched a few more openings and then wrote it off after that.

@Ron – Yes, Conan does man on the street segments but when he does he’s always trying to be the clown. Like he’s the funny one and they’re not so he has to be funny for them. Jay just goes in and has fun with people.

@Jason – One thing last night made clear is that Jay is obviously not allowed to mention Conan anymore.

@Rhonda – it was more a Cheney joke since Cheney is in the news. Honestly I didn’t realize the man has had 5 heart attacks so I found that interesting. I think it’s time for ol’ Dick to retire from the high stress game of politics at this point or that hearse joke won’t be far off the mark.

Lettereman insulted Palin’s children. It’s OK to differ with her views, but not to engage in dirt. Consider what would happen if anyone made his type of remarks about Obama’s kids!

I may not vote for Palin, but will never again watch Letterman or his likes.

Leno seems like a guy you’d like to drink a beer with. Letterman seems like a guy you’d like to pour your beer on. Leno has great writers. He will ultimately prevail.

I don’t watch much TV – but I always enjoy Leno. His jokes are happier – all in all – but Letterman can be crass or mean.
ML

Can’t wait for Sarah Palin to be on tonight. I’m sure Leno is bringing his kneepads. Leno will be doing what he does best: Kiss bottoms for that “Mid America” racist crowd.

I certainly am a conservative (not sure about the “neo” part), and very proud of it. And I’d like to think I’m quite tolerant. In fact, for years Letterman’s show was my favorite show on TV. Honest. I never missed it. But a week’s typical guest list nowadays is something like this: Monday Alec Baldwin, Tuesday Janeane Garofalo, Wednesday Al Franken, Thursday Chris Matthews, and Friday Susan Sarandon. And the last time I checked every single monologue joke was still aimed at either President Bush, Sarah Palin, or Dick Cheney. I’m all for politcal humor, but let’s at least occasionally poke some fun at Joe Biden’s bumbling, Al Gore’s absolute lunacy, or President Obama’s bratty, angry ignorance. There’s plenty of material to be found on both sides of the aisle. Letterman loses half his potential audience when he’s 100% one-sided. He belongs on MSNBC.

The problem Conan had was that he followed Leno’s Prime time show.
His #s would have been higher, had Leno not taken over 10pm, resulting in audiences having their late-night comedy an hour earlier.

While I generally like Leno, he didn’t offer anything new when he went to 10pm. I found Conan’s comedy refreshing. He had good physical comedy, which I guess wasn’t what people liked.

Actually, Leno was not #1 for the first 18 months he was at the helm.

Ironic that a Leno booster bashes on Conan’s “limited schtick”. Jay’s entire comic MO is sketches where he makes fun of people right to their face (Jaywalking, the gameshow sketches). He’s an astonishingly lazy comedian who doesn’t actually DO anything to warrant the ratings or devotion. Then again, neither does America as a country. Guess that explains a lot.

The debut numbers were driven by curiosity…give it a couple of weeks and we’ll be back to same old tired Jay jokes (that he has to explain because they aren’t funny) then see how the numbers shake out…

Conan blows

I love reading the myopic Conites and/or anti-Jay partisans’ horrible analysis of Leno’s ratings.

Oh oh, well he’s riding the fame of newsmakers right now. Bah, he’s got the Olympic coatails inflating his numbers. That’s why we were wrong on predicting his failure. Let’s just wait and see a few weeks or, er, uh make that, a few or several months from now.

Months? Try years. Leno has bested Letterman for 15 of 17 years, all in a row. The fact of the matter is Leno will continue to win just as he did for year after year until someone funnier comes along. Letterman’s not, hence his secondplace ratings. Conan’s not, hence his failure (don’t moan about building an audience; conan more than halved the standard tonight show rake, which is on par with his 1230 performance, which was barely better than Ferguson, Kimmel, and Kilborn before them). The late late night hosts don’t even register as relevant.

The day will come when Leno will be defrocked, but it won’t be by Dave, Coner, Jimmy boy, Ferguson or anyone else presently on the scene in late night.

Interesting how no mention of the guests like Sarah Palin go unmentioned in this piece. Silly me, it’s all Jay that brought in the ratings.

Anyone could crush that moron Letterman. He’s an egotistical, unfunny, uneducated,smarmy turd.

Regarding L. Vonn. In an interview at Vancover post her races, she said “I” 17 times in 5 minutes. Who else does that remind you of?

BillyG, we don’t care about guests, only the numbers.

Please post more intelligent comments if you’re going to use that name.

Pete…why do you feel the need to label anyone who disagrees with your liberal views (or who supports conservative ideas) as a “racist.”

As a Hispanic young woman…who spent years with my family as a migrant farm worker…I am utterly saddened by your racial and political stereotyping! I am a Conservative…and tend to vote Republican.

Why do you spit on those things that you either do not agree with…or do not understand?

Wow…the cultural, religious, political and moral intolerance of liberals in the modern Democratic Party is amazing! Is it no wonder that people are beginning to see through their leftist agenda?

Letterman sits in the hotbed of east coast leftist liberalism which is not the same as the phony liberalism that exists in Hollywood, where everything is run by crotchity old women hating men who embrace the fiscal policiies of Bush. Personally, they are both tired and dried up and need to go.

Simple Leno is basically a nice guy, Letterless is an as*hole

Where is the surprise? Leno has been crushing Letterman for years. They’re in the same game but play for totally different leagues. That’s the facts…like it or not.

Yeah I don’t like Vonn much at all. Other than sandbagging her little finger injury after wiping out so she could screw Julia Mancuso’s chances at defending her gold event, she also have very high fat potential and her face pretty much is that of CNBC’s jabba the hut cheeks Sue Herrara minus ten or twelve years.

This late night realist is on Team Julia when it comes to downhill American olympians.

SARAH PALIN!! She does it every time!! And she drives the left wing nut jobs crazy which makes me like her even more.

Brand Leno is just fine. There were good reasons Dave was bashing Leno. He is the clear leader in late night. Leno will continue to be the leader.

“The same old Leno”,is and will always be funnier than Letterman. Letterman is just not funny.

@Mireya

It’s sad but true. The extremists from BOTH parties don’t represent the norm. Most Americans are in the center but the extremists in the parties still continue to push their either extreme right wing or leftist agendas. It pains me to say that Clinton was probably the last president who espowsed a more moderate ideology. A lot to say for someone who was a cheater his entire life.

In the eyes of this board I guess, Leno = extreme right wing, Letterman = extreme left wing. And I am sure both could care less and are laughing all the way to the bank.

We watched a little Leno just to see the fuss. After a fairly clever Wizard of Oz intro, it all fell into the same ol’ Bush-bashing jokes.
Yawn.

I can’t stand Dave L., so without Conan, my time is better spent reading or sleeping.

Why doesn’t it surprise me? At least Leno is funny. Letterman’s just a cantankerous old man whose only audience is Palin haters, and there aren’t too many of those to watch.

God, so many people on here defending mediocrity and the status quo. I guess it’s true what they say about the lowest common denominator. You only need to turn on your radio to prove that popularity certainly doesn’t equal quality.

As for the political angle, I’m one conservative who thinks Leno is just the worst. I think it’s more generational than ideological. Most of my young conservative friends hate Leno too. If conservatives are looking for entertainers to match their ideology, they won’t have very much to entertain them.

Mission to Accountability to the Truth…
Truth is by hearing and hearing is by the Word of God…
Jesus Christ our Savior told us the truth………
It is proven all mankind is vulnerable to sin and in need of a savior

Mission for good government
1- Control our borders
2 – Make Public Hearings more accessible for all Representative and Civic Groups
3- Show all citizens the history of the Constitution and its predominance to a Providence of a Sovereign God of the universe.
4- Show that the individual can lead a sovereign and accountable life through faith away from big government. Show everyone that an educated community is a strong community. That the family is the framework of a strong community. Tell people why the United States of America is the only country that has not changed hands in the last 266 years. We should show why the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have shown his Providence of this country all these years.

9:04

Hey, I reread my post – where did I say “racist” or even make a point based on RACE? Anywhere?

Stop projecting your own inadequacies on what I didn’t say.

Wait a minute, NBC is who decided to move Leno. NBC decided to move him back. Leno never wanted to leave the Tonight Show to begin with. NBC wanted to bump everyone back an hour in hopes of making more money so they didn’t have to pay for 5 nights of programming from 10-11pm.

I’m happy for Jay and feel bad for Conan, but it’s not Jay’s fault that NBC kicked Conan out, it’s NBC’s fault. I’m glad Conan got the settlement he did. I think he should have held out for more.

2.1/7 mil+ for the 10pm Law and Order. I’m sure that in no way boosted the 11pm news, and that Leno, in no way benefited from that boost.

Higher ratings at 10 = higher news ratings at 11 = higher 11:35 ratings. Something Conan only had until Leno showed up at 10pm.

Thank you Mireya.

Letterman is a jerk and an a-hole. I hope he continues to do so well.

To be honest, his ratings should have been high for his debut back to the time slot. They may not be as high in a week or two but, sure would love to send that other guy home for all his nasty ways.

I breathed a sigh of relief – normalcy again on TV. I can now go to bed with Jay.

Nielson ratings are misleading. Have you ever had a guy knock on your door begging you to take the box and $100 if you did so?

Craig Ferguson needs to be moved to 11:30 and put Letterman back at 12:30. (or maybe later after the Sham-Wow infomercial.) Ferguson’s got the funniest late night show, even if he is a bit repetitive, and his political leanings occasionally come through.

When NBC didn’t realize how short 5 years was, they should have put Leno on twice a week at 9:00 in a variety format. I think the country would have been ready for an Ed Sullivan style show, not a talk show. Leno doesn’t do scripted comedy like Carol Burnett, so that format wouldn’t have worked with him. NBC didn’t learn the lesson when ABC ran Millionaire into the ground, and it cost them the audience at 10, it cost the affiliates at 11, and it cost the network again at 11:30.

The fact of the matter is that Jay Leno is watched by more Americans than Letterman (or Conan).

It is pretty funny to hear liberals complain that this is a result of “lazy” or “unintelligent” Americans. We hear this same sort of criticism from liberals like Nancy Pelosi…who tries to act like her San Francisco political agenda is shared by a majority of Americans — when only 17% of Americans consider themselves to be “liberal.”

I do feel sorry for Conan…but he would have been a better replacement for cynical old Letterman from New York than Jay Leno.

However, the ratings don’t lie. Most Americans identify with Jay Leno…including those in the 18-34 demographic (of which I am a part). It is sooooo funny that wing nuts can’t stand the fact that Americans like Leno!

No offense, but I personally find David Letterman to be somewhat witty…but…very…boring. Does it sink or does it float? Mehhh. I’d rather watch Jaywalking.

Regardless of what happens, letterman is a sleazeball and loses women viewers because of it. i still prefer Leno.

I think Letterman is funny when he’s not being petty and politically partisan. Jay’s a nice guy and middle of the road and that’s the best way to be not just in late night tv, but in life. Dave can be very funny when he’s not being political and bashing women, lol. I used to like Letterman more, actually, until he went of the deep end and gives every liberal democrat a free hall pass while going out of his way to be offensive and personal when it comes time to joke about Republicans.

I will be watching Dave tonight, though, since he has Mitt Romney on. I’m sure most will be at Jay watching Sarah Palin, but she just is a total nonissue, really. First of all, she is not going to run for President in 2012. That would mean she would have to actually do some work, hard work, and she has already quit her job of average work as governor of Alaska. She’s more content to just be a celebrity and get rich off her appearances. Secondly, if Sarah were to run, she’d lose the GOP nomination. Thirdly, even if somehow she won the GOP nom, she’d get clobbered in the general…probably only gettinga bout one-third the vote. If Obama could hand-pick his opponent, it’d be a toss up between Palin and Huckabee. Mitt Romney on the other hand would likely and will likely beat Obama for pretty much every reason even a person with an IQ of 80 can figure out.

So tonight for me it’s Dave.

Greg I was just making a general stmt. It’s probably less clear than right versus left.

But I agree with you. Aside from a handful of cable shows, turn on television or radio any day of the week. Americans have become content with at the best mediocre and the worst terrible television and radio where Westinghouse owns and controls about 90% of the radio stations nationwide. No wonder the networks don’t have to strain to come up with an original idea.

I have better things to do than worry about Letterman and Leno. I live in America not NY or LA.

Leno is a nice guy when it suits him to be. That’s not the same as being a nice guy.
Either way, I’m not particularly bothered by how he does in the ratings because I know he’ll have the same audience he had at 10, which will be good for late night. I don’t understand the people who watch him (having never met anyone with any kind of affection for him) but whatever floats your boat!

Gee, Mireya, you accused me of playing the “race card”, and when I asked you to point out where I said anything racial, you simply changed to a new set of Talking Points.

Leno’s comedy is lazy. Name me a single new comedic idea that he’s come up with in ten years.

Still like Conan….he’s more like Steve Allen. Jay and Dave will never come close to Johnny. Surprising the younger set hasn’t gotten on Conan’s bandwagon….Maybe at 60, I haven’t a clue…I’ll go with that.

Ave Joe, NY and LA are part of America. It would be really refreshing if this whole “America is only comprised of those who I agree with” mentality were thrown overboard by all political parties.

Leno’s monologue is his skill and it is award winning brilliant but hey there’s no accounting for taste or intelligence! Again Conan is funny but his comedy appeals to a limited audience or have you not heard the news?

I like it when Letterman makes passes at female guests on his show and cuts them down. Too bad there wasn’t video of him and that intern that was great. Letterman has been on the air a long time I wonder how many interns and escorts he’s nailed.

Letterman’s good . . .Leno is much better . . but the sad news is that ‘they’ may
srtip the gold medal from Lindsay and give it to Obama – because he went down
hill much, much faster!

Leno will so rule the late nite scene again.

Conan hosted the tonight show?
The tonight show is still around?

I have not watched that walking/talking asshole Letterman for years. He used to be my favorite, but his post 9/11 politics, on top of the revelations that he used young female interns as his private harem, well…. Now I invoke the “wouldn’t cross the street with a full bladder if he was on the other side spontaneously combusting….” rule

Letterman is a serial sex offender & an all-around dirty old man. Not only should he not be on TV but he should be in a jail cell watching LENO on TV!

NBC is laughing all the way to the bank. They don’t care why you watch just that you do watch.

How’s that Team Coco thing working for you?

Leno will sink like a stone once the novelty wears off.

DICK COLER says:
March 2, 2010 at 9:19 am
Letterman’s good . . .Leno is much better . . but the sad news is that ‘they’ may
srtip the gold medal from Lindsay and give it to Obama – because he went down
hill much, much faster!

Mr Coler…. that joke belongs to Mitt Romney who made it first at CPAC two weeks ago! Leno ripped it off last night but made NBC the butt and not President Obe.

I bet all the critics here of Letterman(who I could care less about) and his being a sex offender are the same who think misogyny television which is 90% of the TV shows are great. What a double standard.

Devan,

You know what, Letterman’s transgressions are between him and his family. I realize that his detractors like to use hyperbole, but come on, a “jail cell”? Really?

[...] Jay Leno returned to The Tonight Show last night and crushed David Letterman in the Neilson Ratings. [...]

Same folks that voted for current administration no doubt. Go Public Education!!

“all is forgiven” for what? Jay leno has done nothing wrong, it is NBC execs who should be blamed for the whole fiasco.

DennisD nailed it when he said Leno is likable and Letterman is a nasty old fart!! Jay never treats guest like Letterman does. There is nothing entertaining about Letterman trying to make a guest look like a fool. I also like the fact that you can’t tell if Leno is a Democrat or Republican–he trashes both sides about equally, which I think is the funniest part of his program.

Ritethinker, the most beloved Leno bit “Jaywalking” is based entirely on the premise of making ordinary people look like fools. Leno makes fun of his audience right to their face, and they slavishly clap and laugh along.

Leno’s well known penchant for stepping on his peers is well chronicled. It’s no accident that Carson was a guest on Dave’s show, and didn’t appear on Leno ONCE after Leno had him forced out.

Its amazing how even both these losers are on TV. Late night comedy was no more after Johnny Carson left. Leno has been the better of them though. Letterman jokes are pathetic and boring, and he looks and acts like a leftist retard. At least Leno can play both sides of the political isle.

Imagine what the rating would be like if they would put a real show in its place, like an Ed Sullivan type show. Most celebritys are dumb twitts today, why listen to what they have to say.

People who watch this stuff are just looking for something to put them asleep. Watching HGTV is more interesting than the garbage that executives put on NBC, CBS, and ABC. Thats why they lost so much of their competition to FOX. Thats why cable TV has boomed.

@Declan

I agree with Declan that Jay Leno will continue to beat David Letterman in the ratings simply because Jay Leno clearly cares about the ratings and wants as wide an audience as possible while David Letterman has no interest in attracting conservatives to watch his show. David Letterman appears to be satisfied that his show brings more ad revenue for CBS than the Tonight Show does for NBC.

I disagree with Declan’s assertion Jay’s ratings had nothing to do with curiosity or the post Olympics glow. I predict that Jay’s 18-49 rating will hover around 1.3 – 1.4 for the month of May 2010. David Letterman will probably have a rating around 0.9 – 1.0. I infer that Declan implies that Jay will have a 2.0 ratings in the A 18-49 demo for May 2010. Anyone who predicts Jay to maintain that high a rating two months from now is missing a few marbles.

Funny how people bash Jay… for being Jay. Huh? Was he supposed to come back like Bionic Man or something? “Same old Jay Leno” is the guy who was number one for years. His brand of comedy isn’t supposed to change just because he flips from late night to prime time and back to late night.

Jay’s been on TV for almost two decades. He is and always be who he is. If you haven’t learned that by now, might as well stop trying to

Leno is much funnier than “Shock Jock” Letterman. Dave has a glaring mean streak that rubs me raw. My biggest complaint against Leno is that he continues with the Bush and Cheny bashing, very stale, especially when we have a black president who thinks everyone wants to be on wellfare, hires communists (Van Jones), lets uninvited guests into the Whitehouse, has a Social Secratary that puts herself on the guest list, has an Attorney General that puts an American journalist through 48 hours of interrogation for investigative work on a Senator that refuses to take calls from her constituents but gives miranda rights in less than an hour to the Christmas day bomber etc. Let the Bush thing go and get fresh material from todays buffoons in power. Oh I forgot, NBC would never bite the hand that feeds them.

Jay is a douche

Jay is a total douche

Just proves that Conan sucked…. always did even when he first started. Anybody that wants to can pick him up but he’ll never be a number 1. He got what was coming to him so don’t feel bad he got 60 million.

Jay did great, it wasn’t his fault the ratings spoke for themselves!

Seems most here are trying to cut their chops as being a critic. First rule is get your facts straight. Conan pushed for Leno’s job five years ago. NBC told Leno he would retire in 5 years. NBC said oops, the guy five years later is still #1 and might jump ship offers primetime. Situation explodes as they ruin their only strong timeslot the network had, affiliates revolt and force the ouster of Jay @ 10. Conan sinks in ratings so NBC tries to keep their sure fine #1 latenight guy on by giving him a half hour show. Bumping Conan back. Conan balks and walks with 30M. Leno gets the old slot back and after very minimal promotion in comparison to other “debuts” posts very strong numbers. Mainly because on a nightly basis people want to relax, see friendly faces and some light laughs before they head off to sleep. Personally that works for me. Letterman has turned into a stodgy old man. I like some of Conan’s bits, but really he was extremely immature in his delivery and bordered on annoying. Not what I want to relax at night with. The key is giving people what they want when they want it

Ritethinker: If that’s true then why did Neil Patrick Harris single out Jay from all the late night hosts in regards to making a guest look like a fool? He did a pre-interview with Jay’s producer and the producer’s words were: ‘Oh, Jay can make fun of that’. That’s always been Jay’s angle. Lawyered!

Who watches this crap anymore?

I’ve never been a fan of Leno. He’s not funny and his voice is annoying. As for last night, I watched Letterman, who had some great one-liners and Bill Murray as a guest. However, near show’s end, I switched to Leno ONLY to see Brad Paisley’s performance.

Nightly Routine & Tired Jokes, Vers 2.0. How Exciting.

Welcome back Jay! Loved your show, very funny. I sure did miss you. Glad you kicked Letterman’s butt, I can’t stand that “liberal” womanizer, he has “no” class. With all the depressing things going on in the world, it is good to have an uplifting constant back in our lives. By-the-way, thanks for getting your desk back. I have always wondered what birdbrain came up with the idea that we want to see people stand (news people) or see their legs, it’s just so stupid! Looking forward to watching you every night, keep up the good work, you’re the greatest!!!

He got a huge viewership because NBC had advertised he was going to have Sarah Palin on!

YO, ARE YOU FOLKS KIDDING, WHEN JAY’S ON, HE IS ON, AND MR LOVER BOY
IS NO COMPARISON IN TELLING JOKES.. JAY IS THE CAT TO WATCH.
HE’S HIP, SHARP AND WITH IT ALL THE WAY…AND LOVES YOU-TUBE.

Palin is great loooking, smart, and born in America, unlike the Kenyan.

Axeman,

I finally figured out what you were getting at with “American journalist”.

1. O’Keefe is no “journalist”
2. He and his band of merry pranksters attempted to illegally access the phone system of a US Senator.
3. The “terrorist” cooperated and gave up a lot of names. The previous would be plane bomber who was Mirandized is rotting away in Supermax with no hopes of getting out.
4. Why the need to use the phrase “black president”? Thought you guys were the color blind ones?

Hello,
Not to belittle Jay Leno but he is being sucker into something that is just not right. The upper management at NBC should all be canned. Tell them to take a hike off a short pier, whatever it takes to get them to understand that what they did was really stupid in all ways possible. It is good to see Jay back, but they really blew it big time when they lost Conan O’Brien. What can they do to make it up to some of us that really liked Conan O’ Brien well NBC cannot do anything. They screwed up big time, and they should all be fired for what they have done, and so much more that I really do not want to get into with this e-mail.

Thanks,
Larry D. Crumbley

Katie,

Our President was born in Hawaii. Again, I thought you conservatives were the ones who didn’t obsess on skin color or ethnicity.

I know a lot of people who just stopped watching late night television when Jay left. I think they will gradually drift back, even as the initial hoopla settles down. I don’t think all this left/right, religious b.s. everyone is posting on here is helpful. If I wrote what I think of it you would ALL be offended. Can’t we keep this about Jay and the Tonight Show premiere?

And how nice it was for NBC to help good ol Jay by running with the Vanity Fair piece on Letterman (in which almost no one says anything negative about Dave) and highlighting it as Dave is an evil cult leader…nice job Today Show…for a second I thought I must be watching Fox News the way that was handled. Leno will likely take his lead back because there’s a lot of saps in the country who want the same tired garbage…hopefully when Conan’s banishment from the airwaves is over, Dave will have him on as a guest and that will CRUSH Jay. I can dream.

Larry,

I agree that losing Conan in the long run was a bad move by NBC. In five or six years, Jay will be in his late 60′s, and NBC is going to have to groom someone to take his spot. Right now, they have no one in their talent pool up to it. Moreover, the next host will always be waiting for Jay to change his mind again.

The Quest for a Desk was brilliant, no matter what the Leno haters say. I am not in love with Jay Leno btw, just calling a spade a spade. I encourge his team to go for it, then the audience wins. Which is the whole point isn’t ?

Right on, Katie. Sarah Palin 2012! Barry Hussein back to Indonesia.

“He got a huge viewership because NBC had advertised he was going to have Sarah Palin on!”

Sarah Palin is on tonight, not last night

Leno’s back ~~ if he can continue to crush Letterman I’ll be delighted!

But last night’s monologue was predictable and boring ~~ still taking

shots at W and Cheney ~~ but not BHO, a most delicious, delightful and

deserved target. He passed on one BHO zinger ~~ that BHO was awarded

an Olympic Gold Medal for skiing ~~ no one has gone downhill faster

than BHO!!! Instead, Leno substituted NBC for BHO! Not very

funny, and he knew it! He and his writers also knew using BHO

instead of NBC would have resulted in a huge laugh ~~ but they punted

instead!!! When are these so-called late-night comics going to be

brave enough to make BHO the butt of their jokes? He’s deserving

and the monologues would be much funnier and in tune with the

country!!!

Alysse maybe you should get your facts straight. Conan never ‘pushed’ for Leno’s job. He never even talked about it because he never thought it was possible. He was getting better offers from other networks and NBC knew there was only one job they could offer him. Which they did after they told him Leno wanted to retire in 5 years. Leno told Conan the same rubbish.
Aside from that, yes NBC are the masterminds of this downfall. However, Leno talking about willingly taking back the Tonight Show as early as November is what soured me towards him. It was unclassy in the extreme. Everything that followed was immaterial.

However I will never believe that the majority of people who watch late night tv prefer Jay Leno over anyone, let alone Letterman, Kimmel and Colbert. The sooner Nielsen is destroyed, the sooner we’ll get the truth about ratings. Maybe only then my worst fears about human nature will be realised.

Jays a big dick, wont be watching his show like I used to, he showed his true colors the past few months, what a snake!

Leno is back butchering my show? That’s must be why I just turned over in my grave.

Calvin, I agree with your agreement in the first paragraph.

In the second, though, I don’t pretend to be a numbers guy and didn’t predict any sort of share going to either at any point. All I know is that Jay gets more viewers than Dave, routinely, for ‘teens of years. What is it for Jay, between 4-5 million? And just over 3 mil for Dave? All I meant was that Jay will do as well as he has for 15 years, on the average night, regardless of guest and events like the olympics, and it was absurd to read Jaybashers act like those were the only reasons Jay was besting Dave.

It is amusing to see those who had prophesized his demise, now re analyzing their tea leaves.

CinemaNoir…

actually, I think Jay could not make that joke about Obama going downhill faster than Vonn because Mitt Romney made it first, two weeks ago at CPAC. I think maybe Jay heard Mitt and ripped him off, changing the butt of the joke to NBC when everyone thought it would be Obama because, well, Obama’s disapprovals outnumber his approvals and in one year he has surpassed all the red ink of Bush’s 8 years combined.

When is Johny Carson coming back??

That is when I will start watching again. These 2 clowns are both horrible and Conan was even worse.

lol, and bam here’s the evidence: http://www.npr.org/blogs/waitwait/2010/03/lenoromney_2012.html

Who would think NPR would’ve uncovered something like this atrocity?

I NEVER watch Letterman. He is a boring angry man. He has not been funny like, forever. That is my opinion.

My question is “why does ANYBODY watch either of these guys?” Leno is not funny, Letterman is not funny (and a pervert). Read a book or something…….geeeezzzzzzz.

I really enjoy having him back, I switched to HGTV for a while now. Could not take 10 min of Conan and cannot stand the arrogance of David. Really will like having Jay back it was a mistake on NBC’s part to even offer Jay’s job to Conan when Jay was not ready to leave. Conan had a small nitch on late late night and could not match Jay or Dave.

reruns of Johnny Carsons tonight show would beat both leno and letterman combined

It’s called The Curiousity Factor and “Olympic Fever” and it wont last.

Yes, his numbers will “fall back” but he has always beaten that other jerk in the ratings. Night after night. No surprise here.

These Carson diehards are funny. What’s next, Benny Hill is god’s gift to comedy?

I was a big Letterman fan years ago and never got Leno at all. That said, I agree with all above who say both are tired. The ‘stars’ are bland and uninteresting with canned responses to canned questions. If you want a real interview, listen to Howard. Thanks to my DVR, I watch recorded shows in that time slot. The format will die in a few years.

Leno stealing Romney jokes? That’s Jay’s bread and butter, he only knows how to steal jokes from others. Even the bad ones.

Just wait till letterman announces hes having an affair with one of the male pages…

All of this back and forth about who is funnier is pointless and has nothing to do with these ratings. Surprise: people have different senses of humor. Dave and Jay have different ways of presenting comedy. But of course Jay won last night, and he’ll continue to win for the at least the next two weeks.

1) He has an awesome guest line up this week. I hate Leno, and even I was considering watching for a few of the people he has coming on.

2) People are curious. Conan’s premier numbers were extremely high, as were the premier numbers of the Jay Leno Show. Both dropped significantly. This will drop too. The question is just by how much.

Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if the demo numbers fell in half to about a 1.0 or 1.1. I was honestly expecting something closer to the 3.0 range last night.

If Leno could, he would dig up Johnny, have him stuffed and put him on stage with him every night to bring in ratings.

Letterman is just the same “Dirty ole man” and is NOT entertaining. I would never watch that old fart!

It’s finally safe to watch the tonight show again. I NEVER watched Conehead on the tonight show. He is just a total idiot (like Carl Edwards.. ha ha). His “comedy” is even more juvenile then Letterman’s. Johnny isn’t coming back and for now, this is the best we have @ 10:35 until Craig Ferguson finally gets moved to Letterman’s time.

i am sleeping during these shows and they are not worth recording

good for you Jay. Letterman is a jack@ss.

I watched Leno until his first guest, noted racist Jamie Foxx. ( Any relation to Redd) I did flip over after wathcing Dave’s opening. Then I caught the top 10 on Dave, and when Dave felt it was funny to make Sarah Palin look foolish, I turned it off and went to bed.

Look for Conan to produce and write new TV and movies with that payout.

Dave doesn’t have to make Sarah Palin look foolish. Her and her crowd already are.

Coner has never even done that well against competition at 1230. The fact he muscled his way into 1130 has always been a mystery to me, and no one should feel sorry that he moved from NYC to LA to host the Tonight Show for 7 months.

As far as taste for comedy and the reality of ratings and how we watch goes….. well, if I were King and could name a late night host the funniest, it’d be either Colbert or I’d revive Craig Kilborn. But, from what we have, I prefer Jay most of the time, but I do watch Dave some too. Typically I’ll go for Jay’s monologue, then flip to Dave. Typically I can’t watch Dave for more than 12 seconds before he boringly and predictably resets a Palin joke or retreads a stale and partisan Bush or Cheney joke. Then it’s back to Jay. I really would watch Dave more if he weren’t petty because when he’s on, he can be very funny.

With Kilborn the interviews were much better, more authentic. With Conan, it’s like he elbows in on whomever he’s interviewing so he can grab the attention with some zany head motion or a funny voice or a stupid face, but usually all three at once. In other words, Coner’s juvenile tantrums are as unwatchable as Dave’s partisan politics, and so we go back to Leno, b/c he’s simply not off-putting.

now if he would lean a little to the right he would swamp Letterman

You know, I really do like Letterman better than Leno but there are two reasons I watch Leno – one is that I really like the Headlines segment which he used to do once a week and the other is while I like Letterman, I absolutely hate Paul Schafer – that guy doesn’t know when to keep quiet. I also think Kevin has more class than Paul. If Jay wants to survive, I think he should dro the Jay-Walk All Stars – Stupid is only funny for a while – a very short while. Letterman’s first interview with Paris Hilton was hilarious – I guess I like them both for different reasons.

I know the Olympics hype might have helped but considering NBC was 4th for the night again its good #’s for no decent lead-in

wow!!! this is news? who cares? who’s even watching this crap? who’s even watching abc,cbs,&nbc??? i was too busy watching “the usaual suspects” on my dvr(from encore). it’s like radio…who in their right f#$%@!g ming would listen to this commercial crap when you can just plug in your ipod or mp3 into your car? broadcasting is dead just like daily newspapers. so, let our grandparents ride out this last gasp. when they are gone…free up the air waves and stop cuttin’ down trees.

Andy,

You do know that jay stole the Headlines segment from Letterman. NBC claimed it their property and Leno went with it.

Andy, it’s always been impossible to tell where Dave’s colon ends and Pauls nose begins…..

Jay is funny. Letterman uses sarcasm. Long term, most people would prefer to laugh with the comedian that laugh at his victims.

He better be careful of fawning juvenile imbeciles like Jamie Fox making his show appear as if only twits and clowns will be on the show. Jamie Fox looked like the worst guest he could’ve ever asked to appear, a complete jerk like that could ruin the Tonight Show from appealing to an audience with higher expectations and a modicum of taste. Otherwise Jay was just fine and we will see how the show measures up in the coming weeks. Please Jay, no more guests like Jamie Fox.

Declan Conan didn’t muscle his way in anywhere. A difference in taste is one thing, blatent lying is another.

Randy,

I’m glad Sarah is on tonight. What a difference going from twits and clowns to the next President of the United States.

Both Leno and Letterman are passe. Yawn… I’m going to bed.

I wanted to like the show but it was full of the same old bash
Bush jokes — so stale — can’t his writers find a more timely
subject –
I liked the Wizard of Oz scene for returning , but the rest seemed
tired and warmed over jokes. The guests were not good either.

Diss Letterman all you like, and even if Leno’s ratings are better, Dave makes a LOT more money for CBS than Jay does for NBC, and that’s the only thing that matters to the powers that be.

I hate Letterman and his blatent and smug left wing slant. I hope Jay crushes him.

Katie,

Do you agree with Palin’s assessment that the President can boost approval ratings by declaring War on Iran. Does it concern you that she’s openly discussing such an idea?

Gap toothed liberal loon Letterman will continue to burrow deeper. His proclivity for hosing staff, verbally abusing candidates children and his general slavish devotion to a political wing that makes Chavez look chummy will not help him out. Seeya Davey, you’ve been a good footstool and water carrier for the left but your form of media is going the way of the dodo bird.

I bet all the “haters” on here are Letterman fans.

It is a basic fact that Letterman has the most to lose by Leno going back into his original slot.

I saw comments in here whining about Leno’s “same old jokes” but Letterman is no different. It is called style and each comedian tends to have their own, whether it is original or borrowed. So whining about “same old jokes” shows stupidity on the commenter’s part because they watched Leno knowing they never liked him to begin with? That’s like purposefully hitting your thumb with a hammer instead of the nail. Watch what you like and shut your hole.

Letterman is SCUM!

Jay’s earlier show time slot was up against other network heavy-hitter serial and sitcom programming. Putting him back in late-night compares his ratings apples to apples with the likes of other network similar offerings.. May the best show win!

So Leno premieres with a number that’s equal to his old average on the show? And ‘all is forgiven?’ What an idiotic assumption. Didn’t Leno premiere to great numbers at 10 too? Get back to me in 2 weeks. Your insight is about as valuable as an NBC executives.

People tolerated Leno to See Lindsey Vonn last night…for now it’s the guest Leno has…NOT Leno…plus people tuned in to hear more of Leno Vs Conan Vs. NBC stuff…

18-49 is a really massive span of age groups. An 18 year old is definitely not interested in the same material as a 49 year old. It should really be split up into 18-30, 31-49. I think that would be much more telling about who is actually taking the time to watch Leno’s garbage.

Letterman is the same old boring stuff and just a local New York New York show. Does any body outside the New York bubble realize that half the country sees Leno and Letterman at 10:35 not 11:35! We all do not live in New York eventho the networks semm to beleive that we do.

Leno is a scumbag.

Not as high as I expected. He will never hold onto that kind of numbers. His average will settle at 1.3 at most

Like everything in the world the generic, bland, and boring get the highest ratings and sales. How often is the Acadamey Awarding winning Best Picture the highest grossing film of the year? Rarely. So, if you like average and predictable then by all means tune into Leno.

Sorry Tim.

I used to be a fan of leno but feel that what he did to conan was wrong. he should have just bowed out gracefully instead of returning to the tonight show.

I will never ever watch leno again, the man showed his true colors

Leno’s show is more intelligent and sophisticated than Letterman. Letterman appeals to the more base among us…but those folks are allowed to vote too!

Who?

Premieres are always high. Let’s see what the numbers stabilize too. I bet they stabilize to the same level as Conan’s which is about 1.0 demo.

NBC is a tide that sinks all boats.

Letterman is an hypocrite. He makes fun of Palin’s daughter when he himself has a child out of wedlock and shacking up with the girlfriend. The daughter is young and is entitled to a few mistakes, what is the old goat excuse? bragging about how many girls he bedded…..such class. As for Conan, he should have gotten rid of the mastubating bear, it may be funny for the juveniles in his audience but a turn off for the matured people.

Jays return wasn’t that heavily promoted during the olympics- I feel he will maintain these numbers for the next couple of weeks then still beat Letterman by .2 – .5 every night- He might even slowly gain some fans back- The middle of the line people that will be deciding who they want to watch.

Badger: I bet you have a black friend, too.

The wicked often prosper. Such is the way of the world. But in this case it is the direct fault of unethical television viewers who choose to ignore the fact that Leno is a sleazebag who will step on anybody’s career in order to take what he wants. Yes, this is exactly the kind of television host you deserve, America.

The people herders are at it again. How’s it feel to be manipulated into demographic buying categories? You’re only as good as to the amount of crap that can be sold to you! That’s the American media empire: a proverbial content delivery platform for all the large consumer product companies. They pay a King’s ransom to access the pool of highly suceptable dupes lured in by the vapid programming. Leno, a rube noob and totally unfunny boob, was able to beat the lecherous Letterman? Big deal! It’s just one big slight of hand game. It doesn’t mean anything. They all just circulate the same slate of guests through their greasy furnishings and make unctuous smalltalk. It’s actually just one step removed from mental pornography.

Jay had been number 1 for the longest time before leaving. Why wouldn’t he get his spot back now that he is in the same slot he held for 16 years. Jay will be #1 again.

Leno is nice. Letterman is mean. Most of the time I prefer nice. Sometimes I switch to mean but it only lasts for a little while…I always come back to nice.

Hmmm..Leno…Letterman. Liberal slime or liberal slime…gee which to watch… NAH! Old re-runs of lassie would be better. Or sweet silence. I am sick and tired of scum pig overpaid democrats trashing me and my fellow Americans. It was bad enough when it was mere insults. But the scum traitor pig dems have gotten to be actual threats in action, and dangerous to freedom

Letterman acts so juvenile, you’d think you were watching a kid show. His antics are getting more and more strange – and if I see him squench his mouth up one more time, I’m gonna hurl! Regardless of “who shot John”, Leno seems to be more of a comedian who entertains as opposed to Lettermen, who seems like he’s using his show to slam people he doesn’t like. Of the two, at least Leno acts a little more mature.

With every anti-Sarah Palin joke Dave sinks lower and lower into his own filth. I used to watch him ….occasionally….but NEVERMORE!
In the words of Bugs Bunny…what a Muh-Rooooooon!

I was watching some Conan repeats after he left NBC. Some very funny stuff. I think all three guys are funny, but Letterman and O’Brien are funnier than Leno. Yet Leno gets the higher ratings. Also, George W. Bush was reelected. God Bless America.

i love seeing the punk Letterman get crushed ! Go Jay Go !!

Jay Leno is a regular guy with whom we can all identify, and that may be his widespread appeal. Connan O’Brien is over billed, over paid and overtly an effete snob, although he may appeal to the Harvard University lemmings. I doubt that O’Brien has held a Crescent wrench in his whole life!

Letterman will never have the following…………….

Ooooh, Ralph is making threats. Why, anyone who disagrees with Ralphie is a “traitor”. What are you going to do about it, chief?

OUR FOUNDER did not like Jay – http://www.FATBOY.cc

As far as Dave Letterman is concerned, I sent him an email when he made some sophomoric remarks about Sarah Palin’s daughter getting pregnant and made a joke about it. Later we found out that Letterman himself was a whore monger. I don’t know about Leno, of course, but would bet that he has a streak of ordinary morality that would eclipse Letterman by a couple of country miles.

I’m going on MESSNBC and CNN tonight for a http://www.LIVESHOT.cc

letterman used to be funny but lately his lips have been so firmly attached to obamas ass that he has a hard time telling jokes

Now hiring for thousands of “SHOVEL READY SNOWJOBS” – http://www.M4GW.com

The U$A is being INVADED DAILY – http://www.BorderInvasionPics.com

Letterman, were he a conservative, would have been hounded off the air for his unacceptable behavior of sexually abusing employees under color of authority, not to mention the quaint notion of adultery.

Those old-fashioned “morals clauses” only apply to knuckle-dragging conservatives. No forgiveness, ever. Off with their heads!

Instead, like other card-carrying liberals, Letterman’s lauded for his “honesty” and given a standing ovation and a raise.

Leno looks like Mr. Clean by comparison.

Yes We Can watch UNIVISION Si Se Puede! SI SE PUEDE!! – http://www.AmericanPatrol.com

It’s good to see Leno beating the ‘ol pervert, Letterman.
Google, Letterman, ‘NY prostitutes’- his having relation while married with women on his staff is not the first time this skank has been found out.
He’s not funny- even though he thinks he is. Constantly interupts his guests to stick in a weak joke.
As for Connan O’Brien, he can’t hold a candle to Leno.

.

Hard for Letterman to compete when he’s out banging chics, making fun of the mentally retarded and/or underage children who are pregnant. Real funny stuff Loser Letterman.

Hey Drudgies,

Thoughts about this? :

Gov. Palin announced over the weekend that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant. And you thought John Edwards was in trouble before! Now he has really done it. — “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” 9/2/08

Leno’s joke just as ‘bad’ as Letterman’s…

An ill-perceived idea to use an adult athlete impregnating a young teen joke, is in poor taste not to mention it’s categorized to the level of the springer show. But when it’s intended to point out that a high profile personality may have a double standard is more than stupid when you are poking the girls on your own staff. Wealth and fame really does blur the “do not cross” line for some.

Koblog,

As was pointed out at the time, Letterman is actually the head of his own production company for his show. CBS purchases the show from Dave’s company. In other words, CBS has no jurisdiction over the personnel matters of Letterman’s company/show. Additionally, CBS makes a great deal in ad revenue for CBS and his show is actually more profitble than the higher rated NBC comedy program in the same timeslot.

As for “morals clauses” and other self-congratulatory conservative pronouncements on morality, I have a question. Just how many Drudge conservatives called for the resignations of David Vitter, John Ensign, and Mark Sanford when their dalliances came to light? Oh, that’s right, none of you really did.

[...] Leno’s Chin By failedprofit So, Jay Leno returns to his old time slot, and according to some sources, instantly returns to win the night from [...]

Mark, blantant lying? Conan held his show hostage, threatening a move to Fox and the only thing that kept him from doing so was NBC promising him the Tonight Show in 5 years time. How’s that not muscling his way to Tonight?

Leno is a hack and a thief. America is stupid. That’s why he wins. Letterman at least is an original. Conads is not funny and ugly as hell. Stick to writing where we don’t have to look at your geeky ass.

Dear CBS:

I just wanted to give you some good news; I have not changed my CBS viewing habits or opinion of you bums.

I have tuned CBS out a long time ago. Letterman sucks – he’s not only biased, but a nasty son-of-a-bitch. And I “use ta” watch him since the early 80s.

So you don’t have to worry about me affecting your ratings – you’ve sucked for a long time.

Sincerely,

Frank

I suggest putting re-runs of Johnny Carson on, Johnny would blow both of these guys out of the water.

I stopped watching Letterman about 3 years ago when he became nothing more than a one trick pony. his show became predictably dull, banal and unimaginative. He’d take a catch phrase and proceed to beat it to death, plus my girlfriend and I would set an over/under on how many gratuitous digs he’d take at the conservative du jour. Often times it was in double figures. At least Leno makes us laugh and doesn’t take himself so damned seriously. I’m glad to see him back and look forward to an actual comedian working at 11:30pm instead of a worn out hack.

It did not matter to me… I do not watch Letterman any more. He has turned into a bitter old man; mean and not very funny. He is a jerk. I wish Conan the best. I wish Leno the best. I wish Letterman indigestion.

Frankly, I had no idea that Letterman was still on the air. . . I guess it is true, you learn something new every day.

18-49 demographic. lets see the largest demographic in the us is the boomers. and they are the only ones that have any money left, and therefore the largest spending base. ad people are going after the wrong crowd.

Is there any thing else to watch late at night except these two..Maybe porn !

I don’t watch either of them but if i did i would watch LENO cause letterman is a libtard

“these numbers were down ~25% from the heavily promoted debut of Conan O’Brien last June”

So not so great after all.

I don’t understand all the hate for Leno. Has anyone even listened to what happened when NBC asked Jay to move back to a time slot he never should’ve lost? It wasn’t Jay’s fault and now all these haters are killing him.

My question is, if Conan was so great, how come nobody watched him?

I like Conan and Jay. But I understand business and why NBC was forced to make a change back to the guy they never should’ve moved. If you don’t, that’s your problem.

Conan is more for the college crowd. Letterman’s funny only if he’s grilling someone like Joaquim Phoenix; otherwise his cornball humor and political jibes grate. Leno appeals to the average joe.

All the 11:30 shows are just time wasters until The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson starts. That’s a funny show! All the others should take notes…

The comments are funny. I love the fact that a lot of you hate Letterman because of “his politics”. Gee, did most of you come from the drudgereport? They’re late night comics. Get over it.

[...] Read More: by Robert Seidman, TV BY THE NUMBERS [...]

not going to lie, I am surprised Leno had better numbers than Letterman.

Affiliate program 50% commissions + $25 bonus for joining + $.01 for each unique visitor you send
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Same old crap.

Five George Bush/Dick Cheney jokes in a row: Jay Leno, stuck in 2007. Apparently, his writers are so unimaginative that they couldn’t find anything funny to say about Obama or Biden.

How lame and hackneyed! What’s next–a spinning plate act? NBC should have either let the show die of old age or–here’s an idea–hired some comedy writers who know how to write and be comedic.

I’M GLAS CONAN GONE!!! JAY’S BACK THANK GOODNESS. LETTERMAN IS TOAST.

Looks like the teabaggers found the site. By the way I’m starting a political movement. Therefore, on this TV ratings site (which politics really doesn’t need to be discussed) I am now creating the Rusty Trombone Party. Go to your local music shop and give a rusty trombone to your local politician to show we want change!

Leno is a decent nice guy. Letterman is a mean person with a lot of demons. I dont think he is that funny but has good guest from time to time. Fast foward to the guest and then switch it off. Leno should win head to head as always.

I will always watch Leno over Letterman…hands down.

Leno is a liberal, but not a blatant, in your face liberal like Letterman!
Letterman is totally insulting to Conservatives! Simple as that!

I was totally against Leno and couldn’t believe whathe did to Conan. The Rosie O’Donell spoke out against him. I figured he must be a great guy if that cow hates him. So all is forgiven in my book.

Letterman is a scum bag and thug; here’s hoping that CBS will drop this idiot and women will come forward and charge him with sexual harrassment. Letterman is a pathetic excuse for a man. Carry on Jay Leno. Next to Carson, you are okay.

Where was NOW when the Letterman scandal broke? Oh that’s right, NOW is a left wing political organization that is devoted to killing the pre-born.

Humor and fun will beat hate and smarmy sophomoric jaundice every time.
Lettermans only appeal is to the Ozombie droolers.

Don’t you partisan nutjobs have enough political websites to spew hatred on? This is supposed to be a discussion about television. Save your political diatribes for people who care.

I turned on Letterman and he had Bill Murray on who was insanely funny with his broken leg. I have to wonder about Jay Leno. He has a very strange marriage. I bet they don’t share the same bed never mind bedroom. Married all those years and he has been so self-absorbed that he hasn’t had or adopted a child? What is with him? Too full of himself to love a child or just embarassed for the lack of his manhood.

Wow! You guys can’t stand the poser on CBS any better than me! Right on!

The fact is Leno crushed Letterman for 14 years or so, so there is no reason to think that wouldn’t continue. Conan not being able to take care of a guy Leno vanquished years ago was just one of many reasons why Conan needed to be fired.

Funny guys! And who is funnier? Well, Jay Leno of course!

Partisan…shma? You only have to look to Letterman. He is the one who fills the bill there!

Conan was a joke onto himself and it was NBC, not Leno who ousted him.

Izzy, no one gives a shit about your stupid political pissing contest.

Go cry somewhere else.

GOOD, Letterman is a Liberal, womanizing, piece of crap!

Maybe Letterman will replace Queef Olbermann on MSDNC?

Letterman hasnt been funny since the 80s.

Shma…sure people care about it…Letterman is an obnoxious SOB any way you cut it! And I ain’t crying honey…I’m joyous that Letterman got trounced! Can you feeeeel the Love! Haaaaaaaaaaa!

I can’t stand Leno and even I watched most of it, except for when Bill Murray (always funny) was on Letterman.

Again I’m not a Jay fan but I couldn’t believe how bad his show was last night, Jamie Fox was just painful to watch.

I love Leno and am SO HAPPY!
I KNEW the angry Letterman contingent was just a very LOUD minority.
Jay is Vegas.
Letterman is 7th grade.

Have not watched since Johnny retired, I do see clips of Leno and Man on Fox every now and then.

I watched Leno’s return last night. I won’t watch him again. I gave up on him in 2008 while he still hosted the TONIGHT SHOW. The reason that I will not watch – Leno is gutless.

Last night he made 3-4 jokes in his monologue re: Bush/ Cheney. He never mentioned Obama/Biden. He is fearful of being branded as a “racist” if he makes the quantity and sharpness of jokes about Obama as he did/does Bush.

Thank God for cable TV and DVDs. I can watch re-runs of Johnny Carson, who was truly funny and who made fun of all presidents and vice presidents.

In reading the posted comments, I notice that the conservatives tend to use better grammar and spelling than the liberals. They appear to be more highly educated. They tend to lean toward Leno as do I.

As a senior American, I totally enjoy Jay Leno. His show is a relaxing way to end the day. Letterman actually makes my skin crawl. I have tried watching him, but his so called jokes are unfunny, crass, and offensive.

I can see why the youngsters like Conehead, I mean Conan. They will probably be able to watch him on Fox. Rather ironic, don’t you think!?

Geez, will the hacks ever get over it? The Conan idea was this generation’s new Coke fiasco. His ratings were quicksand. Leno is gold at 11:30.

Meanwhile, the self-admitted creep Letterman is a grimy slug who openly says he doesn’t care anymore and it shows in his broadcasts. Conan grovelers had better be sure his next stop is successful in numbers or he’ll be this era’s Chevy Chase, too.

Leno is younger, hipper, and funnier than me.
I’m lucky I’m still on the air, so, no complaints here.

pmccoy says:
March 2, 2010 at 12:46 pm

“…his so called jokes are unfunny, crass, and offensive.

I can see why the youngsters like Conehead, I mean Conan.”

Wow pmccoy, you just proved the torture of your logic. Letterman is unfunny and crass? And then you go on and make fun of somebody’s name? How unfunny, crass, and offensive can you get?

Maybe you should get off your meds, Grandpa?

I have always love Leno…..and cannot stand Letterman.
So…this is easy for me. Jay is FUN and light…..he doesn’t go anywhere near the mean-spirited putdowns that Letterman does.
Jay is a sweet guy…and it shows.
I wish him well.

Sorry for Conan but he will be fine. He walked away with a ton of $$ and will probably end up at Fox. I have liked him but not anywhere near as much as Jay Leno.

There is something about Letterman’s on-stage-presence that is awkward, closed, and ill at ease. Leno, on the other hand, appears comfortable and in command. Tired, old Dave has not been funny for years and he knows it. His patented, forced, gap-tooth grin is pathetic. Also, his top-ten jokes are less interesting than reading from a telephone directory. Letterman’s leftist humor better suits liberal talk radio’s failed Air America. But mostly, Dave’s jokes are not funny and his audiences feel obligated to applaud rather than laugh (a deadly sign).

As for Conan, he’s not a headliner. He doesn’t have the special presence necessary to host an hour show.

Dave could be funny but instead chooses to be political. Nothing funny about a bitter old liberal. Ask Air America, or should I say MessNBC.

Jay Leno beat Letterman the whole time he was on “The Tonight Show w/Jay Leno”. Hands down….. Letterman just doesn’t have a chance now that Jay is back. The people just prefer Jay to David, that’s all there is to it. Welcome back Jay to your Top Show!

I could care less about either as Satellite TV gives me a lot wider number of choices should I decide to stay up that late and to not be reading anything in particular. If I have to watch one of them it would be Leno and not the King of Mean, Letterman. Leno is at least more easy to like. Both make me miss Carson, Parr and Allen. Those were people who knew how to be not just funny, but interesting and worth spending time with.

When Conan starts at 11PM with FOX in September, these two old duds will be finished. NOBODY will switch over to them if Conan has a chance to do a monologue, comedy bit, and get his first gueat talking before they even say hello.

I can’t wait! Lettermen is a left-wing propogandist and Leno is a tired old hack.

Viva La Conan!

VIVA LA CONAN, I SAY!

Letterman and Leno are both way to too conservative for me. I’m not looking for “funny” in a late night host. Oh no. What I want is a gay socialist vegan who will parrot my political views and not challenge any of my mindlessly held beliefs.

I’ll bet Letterman wished he had said something last friday, something offensive so the media would be talking about him all last weekend. He will have to find something other then attacking Palin though, that shtick is getting old,,,like much of his act

So why exactly did the NBC team force Leno into retirement and give the Tonight Show to Conan? They could have said sorry Conan we changed our mind here is a nice check and good luck but instead they and everyone at NBC but Conan came off looking like evil doers. I never liked Conan but his last week was pretty good and if he had a new show I would check it out which is telling since I never watched his show until the last week. Not a Leno fan either, like Letterman’s interviewing skills but his monologue is hit or miss. Kimmel has his moments but if there ever was a time for a good late night host it is now because most of these guys are old and tired just like their material.

“noted racist jamie foxx”

LOL!

Oh lawd. the drudgie right wingers are here.

Oh yeah, ABC should drop Nightline into the Stone Ages, where it belongs, and let Kimmel move head-to-head with Letterman and Leno. Kimmel would crush them both within a few months maximum.

Kimmel and Conan – the new Kings of Late Night within one year. Guaranteed.

who the he|| watches this shit??

Check with the Reverend Jeramiah Wright to see how much white hate he taught Obama…

Great news. Leno’s jokes are often weak, but glad to hear he’s on his way to pummeling that lib pervert creep Letterman.

Dear CBS:

I just wanted to give you some good news, I have not changed my CBS viewing habits or opinions.

I tuned out CBS scum bags like Letterman a long time ago. To paraphrase “Crazy Dave”: Not only does he suck and is a mean son-of-abitch, but he’s also biased. And I “use ta” watch him since the early 80s.

So, you don’t have to worry about me affecting your ratings – you’ve sucked for a long time.

Who’s Letterman? NBC lost me for late nights when they fired Conan.

How witty of Sarah, and, wow, she even made like a complete sentence.
I will have her know that I am only 69, not exactly “ancient” if you know what I mean.

I guess I will have to make an exception in my assessment that anyone under 30 is a complete idiot.

Is it possible to kill everybody who watches Jay Leno?? They represent everything that is wrong with America, and their horrible sense of humor is what keeps hacks like this guy in business. Im cool with a little comedicide. If someone laughs at a knock knock joke or a misprint in the newspaper, KILL THEM ON THE SPOT!!!!

The people that watch Leno are the people that don’t care about a Leno-Conan feud, or what Leno did to Conan. They don’t care much at all, but if they want light sanitized entertainment, then they’ll watch Leno and not remember one thing they just saw when it was over.

that is what Leno is about, and that’s what NBC is about.

People don’t want to get their blood pressures up before bed and that’s what Letterman does. He ticks people off with his acerbic and nasty attacks. Jay is fun, nonconfrontational humor. That’s what I want at 10:30pm on a week night.

To imwithcoco: dial back on the caffeine and get a life!!

I would guess it to be the habit of turning on the TV and getting ready for bed, selecting a channel to watch. How long the TV will stay on that channel will just be to chance. If it’s not too annoying like Letterman I might watch it. But most of the time the TV will end up on a re-run of NCIS or CSI on another channel. If that is not working we go to FOXNEWS.

I would guess it to be the habit of turning on the TV and getting ready for bed, selecting a channel to watch. How long the TV will stay on that channel will just be to chance. If it’s not too annoying like Letterman I might watch it. But most of the time the TV will end up on a re-run of NCIS or CSI on another channel. If that is not working we go to FOXNEWS.

Let’s be fair? How about Letterman hasn’t been funny for years, and he’s a worthless piece of slimeball hypocritical crap…. that alone drops him to the bottom floor of the outhouse and elevates Leno to at least a seating position in the crapper….

Will NBC ever learn? They should have the left late night schedule alone and if O’Brien threatened to leave they should have shown him the door

I’m personally boycotting Leno. I’m done with him. I wasn’t a big Conan fan either but I do not for one second believe that someone as big as Jay Leno had no voice in that whole situation. Leno comes off as very dishonest and full of himself. I’m sticking to Letterman.

I’m sure Bill and Robert love when Drudge links to the site becomes it brings in a large number of hits. But it also brings the crazy! It only took a short time of skimming the comments before it was obvious there was a link drawing in the unhinged right.

Jay is back and that is good. I know that Conan will land on his feet in a better deal down the road. Allis right with late night! Also, Letterman is where he deserves to be.

I hate flame wars, but I don’t understand the immense support for Letterman and O’Brien on this site.

I think Jay did a great job last night, and I enjoyed watching him do what he does best.

I like Jay, although I think he does need a slight overhaul. I couldn’t make it through conan’s whiny anouncer co-hosts opening.

Jay does exactly what we want. Something that makes us laugh a bit, then settle down and get ready for sleep. Conan= way too wiry.

Although I think Palan and Lambert is a bad choice on the same night but then I can’t stand to watch either of them so tonight I will be watching something else. Jay needs to fire some of his staff and start fresh.

Let’s just restate the obvious. Leno’s ratings were lifted because it was his first day back. By the end of the week his ratings will drift down because this is the same old boring, unfunny Leno. Although, I have got to admit that I fell asleep much more quickly watching Jay last night than when I watched Conan (or Dave for that matter). Jay Leno is the late night Ambien and nothing more.

Given a choice, I’ll watch Leno everytime. As far as I’m concerned Letterman is scum. If he were really in the corporate world instead of a TV “star”, he would get fired and be on the sex offender database. The only reason the women he took advantage of don’t sue, is fear.

So Letterman is the posterchild for the term “Dirty Old Man”.

Why a woman would watch Letterman is beyond me. Why a thinking person would watch, after his non-stop presidential campaign commercials is beyond me.

I wouldn’t watch that prizzick Letterman if you PAID me he’s a condescending elitist @ss that cheated on his wife and should still be a nobody weatherman in outer Slagovia if there was any justice in the world. I hears he’s a jerk to his employees par for the course with liberal nimrods.

Crazy Janey says:

“I’m sure Bill and Robert love when Drudge links to the site becomes it brings in a large number of hits.”

Ah, so they have a pimp. For a minute I thought it was George Wallace’s birthday or something.

[...] From TV By The Numbers: Jay Leno crushed David Letterman in the ratings on his first day back on the “Tonight [...]

What happened to the usual saniness of this place…Conan’s final demo was 4.8, right. I forget what was he trending on his final two weeks?

wow! who watered the gremlins?

i’m going to recommend craig ferguson. his show is the big party where everyone has fun and no one gets hurt.

Give me Letterman anyday. Leno hasn’t been funny since he starred with Pat Morita in Collision Course. Come to think about it, he never was funny.

Hey Brock why would a women watch Letterman? Same reason that we watch a ton of the women hating shows already on television.

When I attended the Academy, we had a course on Jay Leno conducted by Mr. Spock. Nobody could figure out why he had a late night show and our best scientists attributed his success to the not-so-bright uneducated masses of the late 20th Century.

@Darly
“Leno is NOT that funny. His claim to fame is insulting people. He does not deliver funy comments. He picks peoples weaknesses and faults and mistakes and ridicules them. Anyone can do that. Its not a comedian, its a hack.”

Yeah ok, I think all comedians do the same, they pick on everyones
weakness. Example….How about when the old geezer Letterman talked
about Palin’s daughter? Was that not about picking on someone?
Besides Letterman just sucks…I used to like him but now he seems
bitter and spews his liberal crap. Letterman is a phony.

Leno might be good as a sidekick where the host could make fun of him as the resident dunce.

Palin’s daughter? Are the righties still upset they couldn’t get Letterman fired for a bad joke? Poor little crybady righties.

As much as I dislike (and have always disliked) Leno I tuned in for a little bit last night just out of curiosity as I assume many people did. Same bad jokes, same lame bits, exact same lack luster “Tonight”

Will be switching back to Letterman tonight.

There was a reason that Johnny Carson gave the reins to Jay Leno, Letterman has never been funny but is the darling of the liberals that are running NBC.

Conan too is a jerk that will never make it for the long haul.

Kudos Leno is back!

Howard, you got that right. These Drudgies are still upset there is a Black man in the White House.

1. Letterman is a jerk. And, he used to be funny 20 years ago.

2. Pete: since Mireya doesn’t seem to be online to reply to you, I’ll do so. And, I hope you’ll go back under your rock instead of just busting people. (I know, I’m busting you).

Pete says:
March 2, 2010 at 8:57 am
Can’t wait for Sarah Palin to be on tonight. I’m sure Leno is bringing his kneepads. Leno will be doing what he does best: Kiss bottoms for that “Mid America” racist crowd.

Mireya says:
March 2, 2010 at 9:04 am
Pete…why do you feel the need to label anyone who disagrees with your liberal views (or who supports conservative ideas) as a “racist.”

Pete says:
March 2, 2010 at 9:09 am
9:04
Hey, I reread my post – where did I say “racist” or even make a point based on RACE? Anywhere?

Stop projecting your own inadequacies on what I didn’t say.

Pete says:
March 2, 2010 at 9:16 am
Gee, Mireya, you accused me of playing the “race card”, and when I asked you to point out where I said anything racial, you simply changed to a new set of Talking Points.

3. Pete says:
March 2, 2010 at 9:00 am
Actually, Leno was not #1 for the first 18 months he was at the helm.

You’re right, Pete, though it was 21+ months.

ScottyDog,

Actually Johnny wanted Dave to get his gig. Leno backstabbed Johnny and his old buddy, Dave, by ease dropping on NBC executives.

If Leno is lame what does this rating tell you about Playboy Dave!

@ScottyDog, Johnny wanted Letterman not Leno to have the job. Why do you think Carson sent Letterman jokes, appeared on Letterman’s show after he retired although briefly, but nada for Leno. Leno is a backstabber period .

How nice for all the men here to come to the rescue of all the women from big bad sleazy Letterman. How about this. Quit watching all the shows that advocate misogyny and I might believe you all care.

Tom.

That’s not my post, dude. It may surprise you to learn that the name “Pete” is pretty common. Here is my actual first post.

“Actually, Leno was not #1 for the first 18 months he was at the helm.

Ironic that a Leno booster bashes on Conan’s “limited schtick”. Jay’s entire comic MO is sketches where he makes fun of people right to their face (Jaywalking, the gameshow sketches). He’s an astonishingly lazy comedian who doesn’t actually DO anything to warrant the ratings or devotion. Then again, neither does America as a country. Guess that explains a lot.”

Now use your brain, THAT post is clearly not employing the same tone or verbage as the other “Pete” at 8:57 am. You can choose not to believe me, but I didn’t write that first post.

Letterman is an idiot whose humor is dry and stuffy. He laughs at his humor way more than I ever could. I would like to see him in the unemployment line asap!

I think the only reason people are laughing at Lettermans jokes is
because he has those signs that say Laugh and Applaud. Thats it!
The dude is not that funny, just old and bitter.

Good grief!!! If you don’t want to watch, switch the channel! For me, I really like Leno and am glad he’s got a chance to stay around! I don’t find a masturbating bear funny nor a man pinching his nipples. Letterman is full of himself. A lot of his humor takes nasty jabs at others. Get a sense of humor! Maybe when some of you can manage a 5 night a week show, you’ll get your own show. In the mean time, here’s to you Jay!

What’s the big deal here? People tuning into Leno’s return show to see the big car wreck it has become?

WHO IS WATCHING LENO?!?!??!?! show yourself!!!!!!! i have not met one person in my entire life who can stomach a full hour of him. i’m just so confused…

Imwithcoco says:
March 2, 2010 at 1:17 pm

Is it possible to kill everybody who watches Jay Leno?? They represent everything that is wrong with America, and their horrible sense of humor is what keeps hacks like this guy in business. Im cool with a little comedicide. If someone laughs at a knock knock joke or a misprint in the newspaper, KILL THEM ON THE SPOT!!!!

Haaaaaaaaa! These prepubescent kids crack me up!

When I’m in the mood to laugh after a busy day, I tune into Letterman. If I’m in the mood for sleep, I tune into Leno.

El Diablo says:
March 2, 2010 at 2:37 pm

I think the only reason people are laughing at Lettermans jokes is
because he has those signs that say Laugh and Applaud. Thats it!
The dude is not that funny, just old and bitter.

He also caters to the low life Whoopie Goldberg types…..as witnessed in some of these comments above.

Actually, in Leno’s old shows they had an “applause” sign viewable. Since the backlash, the producers have hidden it. Plus Leno gives out prizes to the people who make the biggist fools of themslevse hooping and hollering at Leno’s lame bits.

Looks like Coco will have to put some of the 35 million into a 401K. I wonder if he is eligible for unemployment? Welcome back Jay. Get some new writers though. Dave, don’t let the door hit you on the way out….

Leno’s BACK? I hadn’t realized he’d left….nor cared.
And Letterman is WAY funnier.

YES…JAY the CHIN is back!!! Finally some real Entertainment!
The world is back to normal again.

I don’t understand why anyone would put another person down for expressing their preferences. There’s something wrong with that. Shame on that spirit!

I did not watch leNO last night and I will never again watch leNO. NBC lost me as a late night viewer because of their inexcusable treatment of Conan (and to a lesser extent, leNO).

CF

As has been noted above, but bears repeating, like the Godfather of late-night TV (the late, great Johnny Carson), Leno is bipartisan in his jabs and jokes (although not quite as much as Carson). Letterman (like the banished freak Bill Maher) is a nasty Liberal partisan hack, who also has major personal conduct issues. The sooner he goes the better!!

conanfan says:
March 2, 2010 at 2:55 pm
I did not watch leNO last night and I will never again watch leNO. NBC lost me as a late night viewer because of their inexcusable treatment of Conan (and to a lesser extent, leNO).

CF

OH WELL….

damn leno!!!

i hope your ratings tank soon you backstabbing son of a bitch!!

Letterman is an asshole.

billy says:
March 2, 2010 at 3:00 pm

damn leno!!!
i hope your ratings tank soon you backstabbing son of a bitch!!

Now that’s classy! Are you in the 12-14 age group?

Conan fan here, I doubt Leno wont go back to the top, why wouldn’t he? Just cause you’re a Conan fan doesn’t mean you have to hate this guy, just like Conan.

People watch Leno so they can go to sleep, they don’t want their minds stimulated at 10:30pm.

I watched 2 minutes of Conan once, a year or so ago…..never again.

Leno is a car and motorcycle guy, I’m a car and motorcycle guy…so we have something in common……

Sorry Ann…I stay up to see Leno…..the only reason I would.
He is usually very funny and Jamie Fox was rippin last night….he was a real crack up……
Lindsey Vonn wasn’t too bad either.

If Leno is such a great guy, why does he have no friends and his wife makes him go on the road when he’s not hosting the Tonight Show?

Put me down in the Letterman column. I want a man that who can laugh at himself. Letterman is self-depicting humor; Leno makes fun of the uneducated person on the street.

I watched Letterman for years, when he followed Carson, ’cause there was nothing else on; he sucked then and (I imagine) still sucks today. He is about as unfunny as you could get.

Johnny Carson was my all time favorite and Jay Leno comes the closest to his type of humor. I’m glad to see Jay back! Letterman is rude, crude and obnoxious and his put-downs of Sarah Palin have gone too far and he needs to stop the Palin “jokes”. They’re not funny. He’s the one who is a joke!

I can’t say I watched Leno’s show last night. I fell asleep during his lame searching for a desk bit. The bit went way too long, much like Leno’s career.

I don’t see why people are saying us conservatives are racist. We tuned into Leno, who had Jamie Foxx on. He’s a black man, people. We are not racist. You libtards are gay.

Katie says:
March 2, 2010 at 2:28 pm
@ScottyDog, Johnny wanted Letterman not Leno to have the job. Why do you think Carson sent Letterman jokes, appeared on Letterman’s show after he retired although briefly, but nada for Leno. Leno is a backstabber period .

Johnny Carson sent David Letterman some jokes cause even he knew that
Lettermans jokes suck. LENO is the BEST!!!

Glad to have Leno back, Letterman is a nothing, neither one,or any of the otheres will ever be a Johnny Carson, the good old days are gone. They are all scared to joke about Obams

Arch, not only do you sound like a racist, your post was very childish.

Luther,

What did I say? Jamie Foxx is real funny. I also like the Jeffersons. I’m not a racist.

Oh, Lordy. Arch is that short for Archie Bunker. Or are you Michael Ricards?

There is nobody better than Leno in Late Night.
Conan is ok but not better than Leno.
Letterman is just an old fart who is boring.

Looks like a bunch of old bitter men, not liking Letterman on this forum. We get it. Old and bitter = Leno Fan.

My Grandpa told me that Jay use to be funny. I said, “Really, when was that?” He said when he was a guest of the old late night show with David Letterman back in the 80′s. Apparently, Leno’s bits back then were improved by Letterman and his writers. Much like the Superbowl ad that Letterman wrote for Leno.

Lillie says:
March 2, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Put me down in the Letterman column. I want a man that who can laugh at himself. Letterman is self-depicting humor; Leno makes fun of the uneducated person on the street.

You must be one of those uneducated ones, huh?
I don’t blame you for hatin on Leno. I think if
I was uneducated too, I would hate on him also.

If Leno is so great, why does Letterman, along with Stewart/Colbert keep winning all the awards show? Leno keeps getting shut out.

Letterman is a liberal Leno is not, it’s easy to see why Leno wins.

Luther, it looks like I’m becoming a target of your angry hate that men like you have against us white conservatives. Please redirect that anger to the libtards that are keeping men like you down.

Give me Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert any day of that joke Leno!

edit: Over that joke Leno!

Men like me?

America leads the world in late-night funny-men! If it were the Olympics, the U.S. would have all the golds, nobody else would even have a bronze. Of course, I can’t speak for the non-English speaking countries. Maybe Belarus has an hilarious version of their own Tonight Show (BUT I DOUBT IT). Johnny was great! Dave is great! Conan is great! Jay is so-so, but passable. Let the jokes begin!

Izzy says:

“He also caters to the low life Whoopie Goldberg types”

Cracker Nation outdoes itself. Libtards? Oh, no, it’s the TAXOLIB HOMOCRAT NIGOTARDS!

Great to have Jay back, bring class back to late night; all you Leno haters you know what you can do with yourself. You will have your toliet hummer back. He would be perfect on Comedy Central, that’s were it usually ends up on.

Jay would have better interviews if he could release his lips from his guest’s butt once in a while. Surely, he has to come up for air at least.

CRAIG: What is a “toliet hummer”. Not sure I want mine back.

Conan toilet hummer masturbating bear comic the insult dog need I say more.

Slappy,

I guess a teabagger would know what is a toilet hummer.

Chelsea Handler way funnier than both

From a different observation, politically Jay is in the middle many Americans are just tired of hearing Letterman still bashing Bush and Cheney. (People don’t like being told they were wrong). Someone needs to tell him about President Obama because there is a lot of material there.

As for Conan, he was put on to appeal to a younger audience, which he did. NBC was looking to build younger demos away from the much more mature CBS audience but NBC affiliates were so mad about leading in to their news with Jay’s low ratings that they had to do something. Now let’s hope that Conan goes to FOX which has been built on younger demos.

This too will pass.

Leno is damaged goods, the decline begins after the Palin interview.

Mark my words.

Sorry Pete at 2:31pm. My dumbass mistake.

Pete says:
March 2, 2010 at 2:31 pm

Tom.

That’s not my post, dude. It may surprise you to learn that the name “Pete” is pretty common. Here is my actual first post.

“Actually, Leno was not #1 for the first 18 months he was at the helm.

Liberal Letterman Loses to Leno!

Can’t argue with idiots; I give up. I’m not on anybody’s side.

What’s new? Leno always has beat Letterman in his time slot. The press dosen’t want to talk about that.

Jamie Foxx was absolutely horrible, stupid and unfunny and it was terribly painful to watch. Flipped over to Letterman and Bill Murray and that was ok-funny.

Late night really sucks until Craig Ferguson is on, I find him quite refreshing and funny most of the time.

I hope that Foxx never gets another gig again, that was the crappiest guest I have ever seen on Leno in memory.

>>>>>Mike Gentile says:
March 2, 2010 at 5:52 pm
What’s new? Leno always has beat Letterman in his time slot. The press dosen’t want to talk about that.<<<<<

And yet it's the press reporting this in the news you are replying to.
Mabye we should start making Teabagger jokes like Redneck jokes. I'll start:

You must be a Teabagger if you respond to a news item by criticizing the press for not covering what was covered in the news item.

Anyone have anymore?

Conan had a better opening on his show than Leno. I didn’t watch Leno then, don’t watch him now. Frankly, the Tonight Show died when Johnny Carson left.

He makes fun of both sides can’t you people see that. If you like your one side hummer go to Letterman or Conan. And he listen to both sides and has intelligent conversation and not attack, that’s why the right goes on. Go ahead a bash me I don’t give a shit.

The 11:30 slot is always gonna work better for Leno than 10:00. At 10:00 his audience is still watching Fox News.

What is with all of the right wing trolls jacking up this thread about Leno/Letterman? It’s obvious by their responses that they have no sense of humor at all, so any attempts at jokes would be lost on them.

And what does David Letterman’s personal life have anything to do with yours? Is it because he’s still able to hook up with young interns while you can’t even get any from your spouse? I thought the Republicans were supposed to be the party of personal liberty and small government, yet you seem to want to get into the private business of everyone who doesn’t agree with you.

But I digress. After all, this thread is about Jay Leno’s ratings, and I’m sure he got a huge post-Olympic boost. Let’s see where his ratings end up next week and after that. While I believe that he will go back to beating Letterman on a nightly basis, the real test is whether he significantly improves on the numbers that Conan put up in the same slot and whether he approaches his ratings from last season prior to Conan taking over.

Conan should be on PBS. His is too left wing for a normal audience. Leno is a normal Human Being.

Also, Letterman has lost his credibilty by doing hanky-panky with his lady staff memebers and interns. Jay Leno is personally a man of great character. He keeps his image clean. Plus he is equalliy hard on democrats and republicans.Dave has become too much opf a moonbat and has lost his balance, a la his lame jokes on Sarah Palin. He is a spent force. I predict by May of this year Dave will lose more of his audience and CBS will start losing money on his show and may even think of replacing Dave.

I really do get amused by why people worry about ratings..Jay is way more in touch with the American people than letterman will ever be..Just like are president and tiger woods,they hide behind their phony world of celebrity.Oh,by the way,add Bill Clinton to this phony world of importance of life..These people are out for themselves..

Seshan Mani says:

“Also, Letterman has lost his credibilty by doing hanky-panky with his lady staff memebers and interns. Jay Leno is personally a man of great character. He keeps his image clean.”

Keep your gun clean, Johnny.

http://images.marketworks.com/hi/62/61530/6619.jpg

A man of “great character” doesn’t hide in the closet spying on his bosses.

I just have to say, the joke about “you must be a teabagger” was pretty damn funny. Some of you should be writing for Leno, maybe he would be funny.

Welcome back,Jay. Conan sucked….that’s why they got rid of him….I couldn’t stand looking at his red hair and face or listen to his “jokes”. And Letterman is a dirty old leech!!

after hearing of letterman hanky-panky i lost interest in viewing his show. too many woman have to put up with a boss who expects sex. letter-man should buy a prostie instead of inflicting his sorry self on some poor underling.

Jay, Dave, Conan… none of these are “regular” guys. They are multi-milliondollar-paid TV talk show hosts. That’s not negative about any of them, just facts. Jay does appeal more to “regular” guys and woman, however, which is why he dominated late night for 15 straight years, after a couple of years trailing Dave. Once people started watching Leno, they stayed with him because he makes his viewers comfortable. The Bush-Cheney jokes are tiresome, but after all, Leno is on NBC, the National Bush Cheney bashing network. He is far more an equal-opportunity jokester than Dave, who does seem old, tired, mean, angry and scared. It was no upset that Leno won the ratings battle opening night. He should continue to defeat Letterman because he has been doing so for 15 years. Jay has been a tremendous bargain for NBC, who has paid him less than CBS pays Letterman, yet Leno has virtually always dominated the ratings, which means has brought in a lot more money to NBC than Letterman did for CBS. Leno did seem to be going through the motions at time in his 10 p.m. show, but it was a shot to his professional ego when NBC told him five years ago he should retire and turn the Tonight Show over to Conan so NBC wouldn’t lose the then-up and coming star. How did that work out? The same way much of NBC and its political hate wing, MSNBC, is working out. If anything, Leno is too good for NBC. He should have left and negotiated an 11:30 p.m. show on FOX. That’s the network with the brightest future and one that could pay him what he is worth. Meanwhile, Letterman is back to No. 2 which is as good he will ever get, as long as NBC puts anybody with an overall appeal up against him. Letterman could try to become funny again and have his writers spread their humor to take shots at both liberals and conservatives, but he won’t do that. He’s rich, far left liberals adore him and after all, being second best on national TV isn’t all that bad. He reached his top and just can’t reach any higher (I know that is a Ray Davies line).

I’m glad Leno is back. I don’t care about the showbiz gossip. I do know that Leno is far superior to Letterman in every respect. Letterman is too much of a pompous smartass.

I guess I’ll never understand why so many people hate Leno.

Here’s his story – the most popular late night host is told he must leave because OBrien is taking his spot. As the time approaches, it is clear he still has value, and would be a threat at at rival station, so the network offers him an earlier time slot. He graciously takes it. He never says a bad word about Conan, and he never so much as makes a nasty comment about his usurpation.

So time goes by. Conan stinks. Leno’s new show does not do well, compared to his old show. Industry folks who can’t stand the fact that a talk show has taken the time slot of tired-old scripted shows go out of their way to attack Leno. Critics, never tired of attacking the guy, attack him based on his odd time slot ratings.

So what happens? The network eventually cans Conan and restores Leno.

So think about it. Leno is forced to leave. Later, they, essentially admit their mistake and bring him back.

Clearly this is a major validation of Leno’s late night value. But, for some reason, the headlines don’t read “Leno vindicated – Conan canned.” They read, “Leno fails in early slot. Falls back to old time slot.”

Wow. Just flat out – “wow.” The dislike of this guy runs deep.

Again, I’ll never understand why people dislike this guy. Is it because people think Letterman is more creative? And thus, Leno’s success is merely a reflection of his catering to low brow audiences?

Please. What silliness. Leno could do exactly what Letterman does if he chose to do so. It’s moronic to assume that Letterman is more talented because his humor is too intelligent for most viewers. Leno’s goal is to appeal to the widest audience possible. He does it.

Does Letterman intentionally narrow the scope of his humor because he’s an idealist? Maybe. But that only means that Leno is more of a corporate sell-out than Letterman.

And for all those who think Letterman doesn’t look at ratings – please. Don’t be so naive. His lifeblood is ratings. If his purism ever causes his ratings to drop below “acceptable,” he’ll be canned quicker than Conan.

Leno is the real genius – he gets paid more to do the same thing. Let Letterman dominate the iPad crowd.

How come Jay never makes jokes about the majic negro, Barry Hussein ODumbo from Africa?

Minnie, you are not helping our side with your racist cracks.

Frank Ivy, apparently you have trouble with reading comprehension. If you read these postings here, you would be wondering why all the hatred for David Letterman, not Jay Leno. Don’t let facts get in the way in talking out your butt.

Why are there so many negative people? I read these comments and laugh. Why do you want Leno to fail? I wish Letterman the best, leno the best and wherever Conan lands, the best to him.

Letterman and Leno are equally boring. I think we could use some new entertainment in the 11:35 pm hour. Their humor is old as they are getting in age. Letterman is a leftist rat—-nasty humor, and I think Leno is a nicer person—-but I don’t like how he wanted his time slot back after his 10 PM show didn’t work well in the ratings.

Ever heard the term—-one can never go back—-it is never the same. I think Leno will face that.

Why all the hate for David Letterman? You think there was a bunch of low-life racist teabaggers on here that are jealous of his success. Well, I guess better for them to vent here, than to pent everything up and go Timothy McViegh on the rest of us.

[...] We Learned Today… Leno Crushes Letterman in Return, In Adults 18-49 Too …when snooze meets sleaze, snooze [...]

conan > either

What’s the news story here? The train wreck crowd tuned into Leno to see a train wreck?

Don’t care about the ratings, except that they confirm my theory that people with Nielson boxes are idiots. Or perhaps curious. As has been said, the numbers 1-2 months from now will tell the true story.
#dontwatchleno
#stillwithcoco
Want to see something GOOD on late night? Craig Ferguson is your man.

Hey Steve – whatever “hate” there is for Letterman here is a better cross section of America than what you see in the writings of the professional “critics.”

I don’t hate either one, but I’ve never heard a cross word said about Letterman in the media. Leno is always getting snide comments.

It says a lot – it says that Letterman is the choice of the iPad, still think Obama is a Savior crowd.

Not sure why.

Looks like both Leno and Letterman has went for the lowest common denominator crowd with their guess of Palin and Romney tonight.

Why all the hate period, Carl? Calling people names because of their beliefs, race, iPad use or because they don’t agree with you is not helpful. Jay Leno has always seemed more “Middle America” to me, sort of like Johnny Carson was all those years (yup, I’m that old). But everybody has the right to watch whatever show makes them happy. And yes, they even have the right to disagree with me . . . . I miss the old variety shows with Dean Martin, Flip Wilson, The Smothers Brothers, etc. Hmm maybe I’m in the wrong thread – or at least the wrong decade )

Ratings: Leno 2.0 Letterman 1.0 Does this mean One person watched Letterman and two watched Leno?? I wish they would have used the names of these three people.

[...] Leno Crushes Letterman in Return Published in: [...]

Letterman is a creep that slept with his staff and acts like some kind of mean-spirited nutjob half the time. That’s why the nice guy Leno will always kick Letterman lame commie-pinko ass and have a purple tongue from all the reabaggers that sac-bombed his tonsils…

The longer old fart Letterman stays on TV, the more angry, bitter and less funny he becomes.

I watched LETTERMAN and will continue to do so.

Im with Conan and yeh I like Jay to (Conan is better thou) and I still cant watch him the same now but at least he beat Letterman, I cant stand him I always read jokes here and there from his shows and all they are is him saying he beat out another competitor or the one thats in latest EW its like “Tiger woods made a public apalogy today he still needs three more to beat my record.” really cause your a pig. Only good thing out of this mess is that Letterman gets second place.

I want Johnny back.

Why wonder about the ratings? There is no contest. Jay is the better entertainer. David Letterman is a joke, a sick one at that!

I love Letterman and I think he and his show have always been funnier than Leno. However, I agree with many of the comments posted. He is way over the top with his political bashing and way to left of center the last couple of years. The bashing was funny at first but now the jokes are boring and predictable. He has become very arrogant and bitter. I do not think he will ever get over losing the tonight show and is very jealous of Jay’s success.

Jay will kick his butt as he always has and this will continue consistently as long as Jay is on the Tonight Show.

I’m not a later=nighter but used to record Letterman and watch him every day until he began to fall in line with all his elitist Hollywood left-wing guests and decide that he was smater than everyone. Leno seems to keep his role in perspective. He’s a comedian and not a poltical pundit, like Letterman tries to be and terribly fails.
I wasn’t aware that Leno was forced out of his 11:30 slot. I think rather they were trying to capitalize on his pulling power to capture a prime time slot while hoping to hold on to 11:30 with Conan.

Looks like all the Liberals are whining about this as well.You would think they would know when to shut up.Can’t wait till Nov. this country is really going to give them something to whine about then…Leno is just plain better at this than Letterman will ever be.Man is actually stoopid enough to have affairs with his co-workers then think that he can go on tv and give his tiger woods apology and all will be forgiven?

Leno, Letterman, I don’t think either one is so hot/ Letterman laughs at his on jokes knowing whene he opens his mouth to tell a joke he’s not funny. I have never wasted my time on Letterman and as far as that goes on Leno either. In most cases it’s nothing but party line Humor from the Communist or so called Democrats. So I suppose if your do stupid you can’t think for yourself you should watch one of the Communist Net Works, ABC, NBC or CBS. Me I watch the Sattelite and Fox News, the only Fair and Ballanced News on the air.No Communist for me. It’s bad enough we have a president that surounds himself with those who think Communism is the greatest thing ever invented. So long Comrades.

I work early in the morning and can’t stay up to watch an 11:35 PM run of Leno. I liked the 10 PM slot better to at least catch his monologue. I do not tape shows either – not that important to watch.

First, learn to spell and correct your grammar it’s a bigger joke than Letterman or Leno. We know what your hard core right wing political extremeist views are so watch a nice war flick because humor is is obviously not your thing. I don’t think you are watching satellite broadcasts I beliveve you are rotating around the earth on one (Or something).

I like Jay, but his first show out of the box was so weak and surprisingly dated. I mean, lame Bush-Cheney jokes? I wondered if I was watching a re-run or a rehearsal. Obviously, Jay’s appeal is to make a show that people feel “comfortable” watching but if a show with no edginess or sharpness is what NBC wanted, I have to wonder what the target market it; I assume it’s tired people who want to fall asleep sometime between the monologue and the second guest. If this is represnentative of the new Tonight show, Letterman has nothing to worry about. Not that he’s ever worried about Jay.

Neither are funny but at least Jay is a decent person, letterman is bitter old hack.

I don’t care about any of it until Conan comes back in the fall

Sarah palin as guest!!! Was the big ratings reason!!

It’s interesting that Mr. Hinman (4:33 am) is so focused on Ken’s spelling, yet his own punctuation and captialization are non-existent. What’s up with that, Robert? Looks like both pot and kettle are black.

congratulations Jay. Letterman is a jack@ss.

i havnt watched letterman in many many years…he is just another pathetic leftwing loon. i am glad jay is back. jay can be political because it is funny-letterman is political because he says everything he can to promote leftwing causees or put down anything conservative.

You people like watching talk shows? Couldn’t find anything better than that, huh? Do you really believe hollywood stars and talk show hosts have opinions on the economy, the president, the previous president, movies, musicians, authors, books, politicians, and cultural/moral/ethical issues better than those you could form yourself through your own research? What’s that? You say it’s really all about the humor, the entertainment. You mean you enjoy all those constant, vicious, desperate attempts to sway your political ideas just because they are served up under loads of clever whit by wannabe social puppet masters with fast minds but little real integrity. Your egos are really so starved and weak that you find it necessary to join in the endless feast of mockery and degredation of others? Is it possible all you people are really slaves to these phony culture pimps!? I mean I know celebs are charismatic, witty and often easy to look at and listen to, but you know the difference between good and bad, right? Oh, wait a minute… I get it now. Sorry, for a second I thought this was a place where honest *thinking* people gathered. Didn’t realize I’d stumbled upon a bunch of herd animals. Shouldn’t be too surprised I guess, your kind is everywhere nowadays. Your are in the majority, by a long shot. Quanity over quality, Whoot, Whoot! My mistake, sorry. Really, I understand and have sympathy for your situation. Not your fault the school systems turned to crap, that teachers lost the ability to enforce learning through discipline as well as the concept of academic standards. Probably more than half of you are the products of broken families. Sometimes I forget how jaded and debased the mainstream has become. Without strong, responsible families to grow up in, your morals and sense of responsibility went out the window. Because you were kids and wanted to fit in, you bought all the BS fed to you about there being nothing really wrong with abortions, i.e. killing babies that are still inside their mothers (by far mostly teen mothers, I should add) for the simple reason that you wanted to wallow in irresponsible sex and thereby gain the admiration and acceptance of your peers (who, of course, were also wallowing in irresponsible sex in order to gain your admiration. and without enough responsible, moral authority figures to look after you, you didn’t stand a chance. you were just kids for cripes sake). Why you look the other way and ignore the explosion of sexual diseases and one-parent “families”, because to face these issues head on like responsible grown-ups you would have to recognize and own up to the error of your ways. No, I can’t blame you, not your fault the culture has devolved into a licentious morass of sluggish morals, stubborn ignorance, and lazy irresponsibility while you were growing up. Study too hard, get called a nerd. Don’t have sex get called a prude. Or gay. That’s one of the biggest whips they use to keep you in line right? Don’t laugh at their jokes, or don’t fool around enough, then you are a humorless homosexual or lesbian. Isn’t that how it works? They molded you until you fit their revolutionary new social image, until you were programmed to guzzle down the swill of Letterman, Leno, Conan, Craig, etc. and like it. You became expert at ignoring the foul taste, all the canned laughter and force of numbers made it so much easier. You just went with the flow, yes? Some of you revolted at being force-fed crap like this at first, but most jumped in line pretty quick when the culture police (your surrogate self-appointed authority figures, replacements for the repsponsible parents you never had) came knocking.

Leno is the Best!!!!

Wow, people still complain about not being able to stay up in order to watch something? Suck it up and by a DVR already.

Dear Robert Hinman,
You are chastising a poster (deservedly so) for spelling and grammar mistakes but your post is equally bad if not worse. You misspelled “extremist”, “believe”, and used the word “is” twice in a row by mistake. You also missed a few punctuation marks. Both you clowns could be on Leno’s Headlines. For the record I think Leno is lame and about as funny as a heart attack.

Leno is aswome! Wish Conan would have had more luck, but things just did not work out as planned. I reall like Conan he will be succesful in television somewhere.

Letterman is a Douchebag. Lettermant is not funny. Give Conan his job and then watch those ratings climb.

Bring back Arsenio, PLEASE!

Jay is the king. Letterman is a sad, bitter, over-the-hill frat boy.

Jay will crush Letterman from now until the day Letterman retires.

Lemo is so yesterday. He will not perdure!!! conan..conan!!!!Rti