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NBC Universal would be bigger idiots than they already are if boss Jeff Zucker declares Jay Leno the "king of the 10 PM Hour" (like he declared Conan O'Brien the "king of late night" prematurely. That's because the Jay Leno Show scored strong overnight ratings against weak 10 PM competition: a repeat of CSI: Miami on CBS and on ABC the 2006 motion picture Dreamgirls which had already played all over cable. Leno's primetime debut was seen by 17.7 million viewers and pulled a 5.1 preliminary adults 18-49 rating. That's 34% stronger in the adult demo than the final national household rating for Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show debut last June (9.2 million viewers and a 3.8 adults 18-49 rating) and 50% higher than Leno's final Tonight Show last May (11.9 million viewers and a 3.4 rating). So what does this mean? Nothing. That's right, nothing. In fact, the show should do well all week because there's nothing but repeats or news on the networks. Speaking at the annual Goldman Sachs "Communacopia" Conference, Zucker said he was "very pleased" with the "incredibly strong audience" ratings for the show. "Obviously Jay got off to a very nice start last night" he said but cautioned "there's a very long way to go from here. We'll judge this on 52 weeks, not one night." Right now, Leno's primetime show can't command the same ad rates as 10 PM scripted shows. Then again Jay's show is cheaper, all part of Zucker's managing for margins, not ratings, strategy for the last place network.
'Leno Show' Debuts Well Against Repeats
By Nikki Finke | Category: Late Night | Tuesday September 15, 2009 @ 9:43am PST
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Title Studio Gross 1 Alice In Wonderland Disney $62.7 M 2 Green Zone Universal $14.3 M 3 Shes Out Of My Leag Paramount $9.8 M 4 Shutter Island Paramount $8.1 M 5 Remember Me Summit $8.1 M 6 Our Family Wedding Fox $7.6 M 7 Avatar Fox $6.5 M 8 Brooklyns Finest Overture $4.5 M 9 Cop Out Warner $4.3 M 10 The Crazies Overture $3.7 M 11 Percy Jackson Fox $3.1 M 12 Crazy Heart Fox $3.0 M 13 The Blind Side Warner $1.6 M 14 Valentines Day Warner $1.4 M 15 Ghost Writer Summit $1.2 M 16 Dear John Sony $1.0 M 17 Tooth Fairy Fox $0.7 M 18 Alvin And Chipmunks Fox $0.5 M 19 Last Station SPC $0.4 M 20 The Wolfman Universal $0.4M SOURCE: RENTRAKBox Office Poll
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Lower ad rates and no ancillaries like syndycation/DVD money.
NBC is racing towards the bottom and diminished returns faster than we expected.
Your scoops are the best, Nikki, but you know what your commentary means?
Nothing.
Jay Leno is a joke. The whole show is a joke. NBC= Nothing But Crap
I’m willing to bet a lot of these viewers were there out of curiosity.
I’ve already spoken with family in middle America. They never watched Leno but they tuned in last night to see what the deal was with the “new show”. After watching for part of it they realized that nothing was new and it was the same boring schtick and changed the channel.
Congratulations to Jay Leno! The show was funny, Kevin Eubanks and the band were back and there was even a “Hugh Grant” moment. But where was John Melendez? Last night’s announcer sounded almost catatonic.
The monologue could be longer and Jay needs to stand closer to the band for that frequent banter with Kevin. Other than that, keep the status quo. Remember Jay, if things don’t work out, ABC or Fox will welcome you with open arms.
Either way, Jay wins!
Not to forget the bump Jay may have received from Kanye West’s contrite sit-down with Jay, which was promoted before the show aired.
Good numbers but the Show sucked. Monologue was horribly misplaced, overpolitical and outdated.
I’m more interested in how this impacts the Dave/Conan race, as you might find people more interested in flipping over after they have Jay. Might especially hurt 12:30 on NBC… 3 hours of talk in a row…
Jay’s new show wins the time slot with high numbers and you say it means “nothing?” Not very thoughtful analysis, Nikki.
If it had tanked in the numbers, that would mean something. The fact that it did NOT tank in the numbers therefore means something. Don’t know what your beef is with Jay, but the show didn’t tank. Deal with it.
On the same subject, Jay’s first show was genuinely underwhelming and, for me, a disappointment. Start to finish.
But a variety show, with an emphasis on comedy, every night at 10PM is in theory a decent idea. They’ll need to bring their A game if they want to succeed.
To be fair, at least NBC got some eyeballs to a show debut. They’ve had countless shows never get out of the gate because of low debut numbers. Of course, running a 30 second promo for Leno would take 2:30 to cover five different shows.
Personally i did not find him all that funny. Jerry Seinfeld was better. The whole car wash thing sucked along with his monologue. Kanye having to answer what his mom thought about the crap he pulled at the VMA’s was great. Overall though I was waiting for the show to be over.
Stasi of the NY Post gave it 3 1/2 stars?
Wow..I give it 2 stars. I am starting to believe that there is no more real “magic” left in TV. If there is, I didn’t see it at 10pm on NBC.
First, why did they use the “ugly” pictures of Jay in the opening? Even he admitted his face would scare kids back then.
That singing car wash bit???? Come on! That was about as funny as a high school play (sorry to insult high schoolers). You would think on the first night…..you’d bring out Seinfeld EARLIER…..and that would automatically hold the audience. There was not enough brotherhood with Kevin and the band. The Kanye stuff was pretty well handled. And if those are the best ‘headlines’ he has after 3-months..maybe he should dump the bit.
I like Jay…I hope he kicks butt…..but last night, it was a bit tentative. Don’t program the show for lame TV execs…….program it for “the people.” That’s who Jay plays-to, anyway.
On the factor last night and Fox Business they were talking about Zucker’s gamble with the new Leno Show. If Leno doesn’t succeed it could be Zucker’s head on the guilliotine becouse NBC is in financial trouble.
On a related note MSNBC may be cancelling the Ed Schultz Show and Rachel Maddow becouse of some real sorry ratings and the fact shows have lost viewers.
Zucker’s head should have been on the guilliotine after he gave The Tonight Show to Conan O’Brien when Jay Leno had been number one in late night t.v. for 17 years.
Nikki, why are you OBSESSED with Leno and NBC? They did great, give them some credit. No one’s expecting him to rake in 17M viewers every day forever but that’s a damn good number, competition or not. I thought even you would be able to recognize it.
I really liked Jays new show.I never cared for or watched The Tonight Show,but my husband of 32yrs loved Jay….The comedian was really funny,I’d never seen him before but I hope his is a reg.bit.And I can’t wait to see Michael Moore’s new movie…..I’m really surprised that I liked it so much…….He showed an old gal some new tricks…..
I liked the show, don’t get me wrong. However, besides the format I didn’t see any difference between this show and the tonight show. Everything about it reminds you of the tonight show. How is this going to change television? Is it because the timeslot it is on? Or a comedy skit show on a network channel? I don’t get it. The Chappelle show and Carlos Mencia already have shows that are pretty much the same concept. Not to mention Conan, Letterman, and whoever else there is. Personally, I think all the hype was much ado about nothing. And just like Sienfield said to Jay on his show last night, “I’m trying to figure out what’s going on here.”
I was disappointed, to be honest. I was looking forward to a very chill, entertaining show, but all I saw was scripted, awkward dialogue (the Seinfeld bit was horrible, not to mention the stupid car wash thing). Hopefully, though, it will get better with time as they tweak things and what not.
The first two weeks of this show are just for curiosity’s sake and nothing else. Zucker better not get used to this show pulling in those kind of numbers after a month on the air as it will begin to start tanking as the newness wears off. It happened to Conan and to Fallon so NBC better not get too relieved to see this guy’s ratings be at the point they will be for 14 days. This show will tank eventually like everything else at Nothing But Crap.
I watched about the first three minutes before flipping off. This is just the old Tonight Show, but on earlier. “Robot Man” walks out, spews jokes, does lame comedy bits, interviews a guest. This is the future of television? Nothing personal against Leno, but I just don’t see how this works.
The only guy doing fresh stuff on late night (network) TV is Craig Ferguson. The guy is amazing!
This show was unfunny, forced and unbearable. The worst thing I’ve seen on TV in a long time. And I liked Jay’s old show some of the time.
Jay Leno makes my skin crawl. I guess he’s been officially found innocent of scabbing, but he’ll always be a scab in my book.
So what are the consistent ratings going to be a month from now? He can’t keep these record ratings up?
The Jay Leno Show on NBC is actually genius, a comedy show that isn’t funny. It is so lame and unfunny their target audience must be coma patients.
Leno engages in some highly questionable behavior during the strike, and gets a pass from the WGA. Then he comes out and does a new TV show that is literally unwatchable, comparable to Chevy Chase’s old talk show, and pulls in 17 million viewers. When the hell does this guy’s luck run out? Is karma now extinct? Of course that’s what I used to think about OJ.
Nikki and every other TV executive in Hollywood is obsessed over Jay Leno because of how it may change the face of primetime television. I don’t expect Jay’s ratings to hold up like they did on his opening night, but if he averages about 7 million viewers a night, then this could change the whole programming schedule for all of the networks because it may not be profitable to sink five million dollars an episode for a primetime drama that may not draw as many viewers as a cheaply produced show like Jay Leno. This could be huge for NBC in primetime, but it may cannibalize their late night lineup of Conan, Jimmy Fallon, and Carson Daly. In fact, most of Jay’s viewers may decide to watch Letterman after their local news.
Jay needs to stand closer to the band for that frequent banter with Kevin.
I also thought the stage seemed a little too open…even Kevin was apart from the band. I’m guessing they want it to look more like a primetime gameshow, instead of having the intimacy of late night.
Ironically, the weakest part was the “young comic” segment, which I expected to be a highlight. Instead, the tired car wash bit went nowhere. (Jim Norton’s debut was a significant improvement in tonight’s show.)
Overall, the show really screws with your sense of time. By the time The Tonight Show comes on, you feel like you’ve already watched it. If Leno’s show catches on, it will be interesting to see how it affects ratings for Conan and- particularly- Jimmy Fallon. You really feel like it’s about 2am by the time Late Night finally arrives. (Not to mention, most of the day’s topical jokes have already been delivered- twice.)
You want to talk numbers, here’s a stat: 60% of viewers for Leno’s opening program were over 50. 60 percent! No show has skewed this old since Lawrence Welk and Gunsmoke.
The show was plain bad. Did Zucker say he was programming for margins or for morons?
It really surprised me the show had so much time to plan and was so heavily promoted and then they didn’t even try to do anything new. If you told me I was watching a Tonight Show rerun from last year, I would have believed you.
The numbers have been revised. Leno pulled 18.4 million viewers, not 17.7.
If the show drops by 50% over the next few months its still better than some of NBC’s scripted shows on at 10pm. The huge numbers won’t hold up NBC knows this that’s why they were not hyping the numbers that much, they are in it for 46 weeks not one day.
If Leno does hold up anywhere these numbers, guess what, monkey see monkey do, that’s Hollywood.
It dropped either 34% or 40% on Night 2, depending on which meter you believe. It won’t come close to holding 50% of the first night’s episode going forward. In order to do that, the show would need to be entertaining. It’s not.
Welcome Back Jay.
Jay Leno will always have his core base to sustain him for the long run of it. His brand is very much alive and well.
Babyboomers are living longer and healthier lives so his base is fully intact, for sure.
I think he will do just fine, despite whatever criticism comes his way. When he took over for Johnny Carson, his critics and ratings took a pretty severe beating and he rose above all of the fray and thus, took The Tonight Show to the Number One rated late night talkshow for years and years and years.
He proved everyone wrong and he will be successful and prevail in the greater scheme of things.
You go Jay.
Who’s more obvious: the union guys who bash Leno in the comments of every story about him, or the NBC employees who praise him (”Either way, Jay wins!”)?
Regardless, people with even a pretense of taste have always found Leno to be the embodiment of lame. Team snob!
This time it’s not just union guys. If you visit populist web sites like EW.com there’s tremndous condemnation of this new show. It’s just not well done, well written or entertaining.
“If it had tanked in the numbers, that would mean something. The fact that it did NOT tank in the numbers therefore means something.”
Well put.
We all know Jay won’t be getting numbers anything like this next month, or maybe even next week, but you can’t say it’s meaningless that Jay was a huge hit on opening night. Tons of highly-touted TV projects crash and burn the very first episode. Leno soared. That counts for something.
Chuck, I am not sure that Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow will be getting the shaft soon. It is Keith Olbermann that is in trouble despite the big contract. He has been attacking FOX News again, he spews hate and virile, and lies about his own ratings to the point that he is dragging down the entire cable network.
Countdown was supposed to be news show with some analysis thrown into the mix. The show used to feature the three biggest stories on the day counted down from five to three with a Oddball segment after number 4. Story number two usually was a story of minor importance followed by a keeping tabs segment which featured celebrity and entertainment news. This lead to the number one story of the day which was a lighthearted story in which Keith would call important or the big entertainment story of the day.
Now Countdown is news analysis show with the slightest hint of Oddball. Simply put, he does the same as Bill O’Reilly except that he includes his commentary in certain points of the broadcst including the day’s newsmakers in best persons, and Worst Person in the World segment. The Number One story is usually Keith giving us a piece of his mind through some kind of commentary. Clearly he has a grudge against his audience and must be fired now.
As for Jay Leno, I agree with Nikki because Monday night’s ratings mean nothing except that America’s Got Talent is a hit show by NBC standards. Jay hasn’t proven anything to anybody.
I think you meant “spewing vitriol.” He probably wasn’t spewing virile unless he was on Viagra. “Viagra” – a reference you seldom hear anymore, except in one of Leno’s dated monologues.
Tuesday night ratings showed a huge drop from Monday. It’s called “sampling.” You give people a lousy product on night one, they don’t wanna come back. That first night, with 17.7 million viewers, was the night to wow ‘em, and the show had nary a laff. It’s over.
Leno lost about 5 million viewers from his America’s Got Talent lead in Wednesday night. This was the season finale for “Talent.”
Night four ratings: 8.5 million viewers, down over 50% from the premiere. This show is sinking like a rock.
It’s always fun to come here and find Hollywood waiters who think they are funnier and wiser than the execs and talent.