The 10/24 encore telecast of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, hosted by Megan Fox and featuring musical guest U2, averaged a 3.7/9 in metered-market households.

I wrote at the end of July that it was way too early to write Conan’s epitaph,  and at that point Conan’s Tonight Show hadn’t come close to losing a week in the important adults 18-49 ratings to Letterman’s Late Show. Fast forward 3 months, and a Letterman office romance/extortion scandal later, and the ratings trend is definitely not Conan’s friend.

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In an article that’s mostly about the current advertising situation in late night TV (the anecdotal advertising info I tend to completely discount, public advertising information like this is hard draw conclusions from), comes some season to date comparisons for NBC’s late night ratings (which we don’t get from our regular sources):

O’Brien is down 22% among 18-49 viewers for the first four weeks of the season; “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” is down 16% in 18-49 viewers

That’s a big problem for NBC. A very big problem. Summer results I was willing to overlook, but the early fall trend spells disaster for NBC.

I continue to maintain that the problem with the Tonight Show ratings isn’t that Jay Leno’s at 10pm, it’s that he’s not at 11:30pm. Conan has allowed Letterman to completely close the gap with the Tonight Show and while anything can happen in the future, the current situation after 11:30 is a bad one for NBC.

via ABC press release:

Fringe Ratings Report: ABC Late-Night Programming

Week of October 12, 2009

ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Draws its Largest Audience Since Premiere Week

“JKL” Outperforms “Fallon” for the Week by 15% in Viewers, Topping the NBC Program for the 4th Straight Week, Every Week of the TV 0910 Season

Weekly National Ratings:

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via NBC press release:

NBC LATE-NIGHT RATINGS RESULTS FOR THE WEEK OF OCT. 12-16

CONAN TIES  LATE SHOW  FOR THE WEEK IN 18-49 RATING, PREVAILS DECISIVELY IN 18-34

JIMMY FALLON IS #1 AMONG ALL BROADCAST NETS AT 12:35 A.M. IN 18-49 AND 18-34; JIMMY TOPS LETTERMAN IN 18-34 DESPITE  LATE NIGHT S  LATER START TIME

CONAN IS UP 6 PERCENT WEEK TO WEEK IN 18-49 VIEWERS AND JIMMY FALLON IS UP 22 PERCENT TO HIT A SEASON HIGH

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif.   October 22, 2009   NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” has averaged a 1.0 rating, 4 share in adults 18-49 and 2.5 million viewers overall for the week of October 12-16.  “Tonight” tied CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman” for #1 in the time period in adult 18-49 rating among the broadcast networks.

Conan out-rated CBS’s “Late Show” and ABC’s “Nightline” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” in adults 18-34 for the week, posting a 0.9 rating in 18-34 versus “Late Show’s” 0.6, “Nightline’s” 0.7 and “Kimmel’s” 0.4.

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Look for the “Conan won the 18-34 demo” press release coming soon.

via CBS press release:

“LATE SHOW” WINS AGAIN

“LATE SHOW” PLACES FIRST IN VIEWERS, ADULTS 18-49 AND ADULTS 25-54 FOR THE THIRD TIME IN THE LAST FOUR WEEKS

“The Late Late Show” Finishes First in Viewers and Adults 25-54

CBS’s LATE SHOW with DAVID LETTERMAN placed first in viewers, adults 18-49 (tie) and adults 25-54 for the third time in the last four week, according to Nielsen live plus same day ratings for the week ending Oct. 16.

LATE SHOW posted a 3.0/08 in households with an average of 4.20m viewers, 1.0/04 in adults 18-49 and 1.4/06 in adults 25-54.

LATE SHOW beat “The Tonight Show” in households by +67% (vs. 1.8/05), viewers by +68% (vs. 2.50m), adults 25-54 by +17% (vs. 1.2/05) and tied in adults 18-49 (1.0/04 each).

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In late-night metered-market households Saturday night:

• SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, hosted by Gerard Butler and featuring musical guest Shakira, averaged a 4.8/11 in metered-market households, SNL’s highest result in the metered markets so far this season.
• SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE delivered the #1 non-sports rating of the night in the metered markets, topping all primetime entertainment telecasts on all the major networks. In fact, SNL outscored every Saturday primetime non-sports telecast on every major network over the past five months (since May 16).

via press release:

Ratings Report for ABC News’ “Nightline”

For the Week of October 5, 2009

“NIGHTLINE” BESTS “TONIGHT SHOW” IN TOTAL VIEWERS

16 WEEKS IN A ROW

“NIGHTLINE” REMAINS SOLID #2, OUTPERFORMING “TONIGHT”

IN BOTH A25-54 AND A18-49

“NIGHTLINE” GROWS +9% AMONG TOTAL VIEWERS YEAR TO YEAR

WHILE “TONIGHT SHOW” DECLINES -49%

ABC News’ “Nightline” is #2 among Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 for the week of October 5, 2009, according to Nielsen Media Research. This marks the 16th consecutive week “Nightline” has outperformed NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” in Total Viewers and the third consecutive week among A25-54.

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