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There’s big news on the late night TV battlefront today: The late-night ratings for Q2 – the first full quarter since Leno came back as host after Conan O’Brien was dumped – are in, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno posted its lowest-rated Q2 since the Late Show with David Letterman launched on CBS in 1993. Additionally, Late Show delivered its most competitive finish against The Tonight Show in viewers and key demographics since 1995. Still, Leno topped Letterman comfortably in the ratings during their first quarter in 9 months as late-night rivals, by 23% in both total viewers and adults 18-49. The Tonight Show averaged 4.0 million viewers and a 1.1/4 in adults 18-49, down 20% in viewers and 31% in adults 18-49 from last year’s second quarter, which was inflated by the big ratings for Leno’s sign-off and Conan O’Brien’s debut.
It was the lowest-rated second quarter for The Tonight Show in total viewers, adults 18-49, and adults 25-54 since 1993. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is now tracking at demo levels comparable to where the show was with O’Brien as host. Meanwhile, Late Show too had its smallest audience since 1993. It drew 3.3 million viewers and a 0.9/4 in 18-49, down 7% in viewers and even in 18-49. It was Late Show’s most competitive 2Q position against The Tonight Show in viewers (-746,000) and adults 18-49 (-0.2) since 1995.
So the old guard late-night hosts are losing ground, with Nightline (3.7 million, up 2%), once in danger of cancellation by ABC when the network was pursuing Letterman, comfortably ahead of the CBS host and closing in on Leno.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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Why is this a shock to anyone? The guy was smeared relentlessly. Of course it’s going to have some effect. He’ll probably never fully regain his numbers, but he’ll always still be a hell of a lot more accomplished than any of you whiners.
I think Conan failed because he just wasn’t funny. Not @ 12:30 and not @ 11:30. Everyone ignored his show until he got pushed out and then everyone felt sorry for him in a Hilary Clinton after the Monica thing sort of way. My guess is he went to TBS because his anemic ratings will be fine there. He seems like a nice-enough guy, but even if he had stronger lead-ins, it’s hard to believe the result would have been very different.
So what excuse will the Coco crowd come up with when Conan fails again?
Is it really about 4 million viewers? That is pathetic. There are 12 million (of the 20 million subscribers) listening to Howard Stern everyday. There is a man who earned his salary.
Jay only has 4 million viewers a night? Heck, Glenn Beck gets almost that many on a cable network in the afternoon!.
Glenn Beck gets that many viewers because America is filled with flag waving, illiterate rednecks. Hitler and Pol Pot would probably get higher ratings then Leno, too.
The funny thing is that Hitler and Pol Pot were both leftists. Glenn Beck (like many of our country’s founders) preaches self-reliance and self-determination; Hitler, Pol Pot, and Obama preach reliance upon the state and centralized control. Granted, Beck is also an alarmist, but that is understandable. Considering how literate you claim to be, perhaps you can tell me how those two leftist leaders and their countries turned out.
At any rate, all of the late-night hosts are either liberal or left-leaning, and you can see it in their declining ratings. America has lost its appetite for smug, hypocritical liberal comedians. I do recall a study that claimed Fox and Rush Limbaugh audience members were, on the whole, more-informed than their counterparts who watch left-biased news sources…
“The funny thing is that Hitler and Pol Pot were both leftists.”
You don’t know history very well Lardo. your brain has turned to mush listening to AM radio spew. THE TRUTH is the first conservative party was the Brown Shirts led by Adolf Hitler. You have divided every topic into liberal and conservative because you are a fool eho is a sore loser when it comes to elections. McCain was a pathetic joke who will die soon, probably while he was president, then you get that slimeball ignorant quitter PALIN for president. Republi-tards have no agenda, all they can do is bash…if the republi-tards had a real plan they might have earned the presidency. We tolerated 8 years of that retard BUSH, there is no way America could have survived another 4 years of a Republi-tard presidency.
OK, Lardo just gas up your plane and fly it into the white house or drive your tractor to the national monument. the TRUTH is you conservative Nazi’s are the whack jobs who are terrorists. please stiop terrorizing message boards with your one sided hate spew. amen. and screw your fake ass Jesus Idol on a stick.
12 million? Get real. Fairly recent polling has him getting around one million listeners a show, and with is recent work ethic I’m sure it’s gone down even more since that.
Conan was good at 12:30 but not at 11:30 since he tried to change his “quirky” vibe to suit “mainstream” viewers. What nobody gets is that the only reason that the Tonight Show had an aura of greatness was because Carson was the host, not for any other reason. The “legacy” of “The Tonight Show” is absolutely meaningless but people like Conan think it’s a big deal for some reason. Leno isn’t very funny but neither is Letterman who is about 15-20 years past his prime, it’s amazing but if you watch old clips of Letterman from the 80′s he’s actually funny! Neither Letterman, Leno or Conan are nearly as good as Carson was.
How about none of these shows Leno, Letterman or to a lesser extent Kimmel, are funny or offer anything unexpected. Kimmel’s show is only funny when it’s not a talk show and veers into something more spontaneous. It’s all vapid celebrity interviews Maybe when we hadn’t hear these same answers 10 times other places this would fly but nowadays seeing these are just a bore.
Okay, who wants pie?
A product of the 50s. Leno sucks. Conan is cool because he accelerated with us. Leno studied Carson and stayed in the 60s.
Hip today is insight and growth.
The answer is easy. If you want to stay in business Leno, then make jokes about the evil dictator in office. Its that simple.
Jay who? Where is Oprah?
Okay. It’s like this. Leno isn’t funny. He panders to democrats. He’s a democrat himself. Democrats aren’t funny. They’re just uninformed on almost every issue. That’s why everything is a joke to them. His in house audience would laugh if Betty White dropped dead in mid sentence while talking to Jay. His jokes are vulgar and getting worse.
Good riddance to Kevin Eubanks. He wasn’t playing at being dense and stupid. No acting there boys and girls. His band sucked. He slowed the show down every time he opened his yap. 16 years as band leader? Damn, Jay. You’re as stupid as Kevin.
Conan. Not funny. Not before. Not now. Not ever. How stupid are you to laugh at this juvenile jerk. Conan would be fortunate to be a clown at kids birthday parties on weekends.
Letterman? Can this old socialist stooge get any creepier?
Kimmel’s show will become 100% funnier the day Uncle Frank drops dead.
Fallon? The funniest, most talented late night talk show host in tv history. Every night watching Fallon having fun is like being half stoned at a frat party. And he only gets better every week. He will replace Leno on the Tonight Show and the Tonight Show will return to its New York City roots. Way overdue!
Goodbye Leno! The King is dead! Long live the King!
You should work on your sarcasm. I mean, you are kidding, right? Did you not hear about the nationwide tour Conan just finished, that sold out in a matter of hours? He is a comedic genius and he will finally get the respect he deserves at TBS, unlike the backstabbers at NBC.
And it seems hypocritical to say Conan isn’t funny because of his juvenile humor, then applaud Fallon because his show is like a frat party. I would say frat boy humor is about as juvenile as it gets. The truth is, the genius of Conan goes over most people’s heads, which is understandable when most people want their humor spoon fed to them via laugh tracks or see-it-coming-a-mile-away punchlines.
Can somebody explain to me why I am suppose to care about this?
Liberalism is a mental disorder.
Kind of enjoying the hilarity of watching Leno fans trying to explain his losing viewers, plain and simple, he’s a loser. and his ratings are showing that exact same thing right now. We will not have him on our screen ever again, all it took to seal that deal was seeing him treat Conan as he did- and our household is the future. We have a great many years ahead of us as do our kids, to change the channel when Leno’s face comes on the screen.
Fallon seems the most funny now, Lettermen lost it years ago. Time for Jay to step aside. Kimmel is stale and bleak.
Jimmy is the new fresh face face in a overcrowded supermarket.
Once Letterman tries to be funny, he wasen’t. Jay without Eubanks is lame and seems to be trying too hard.
Jimmy Fallon is the bright star in a dark flat universe.
People let’s not argue about who or what is funny. I shall now provide you with the list starting with funniest. I think this will end all arguments:
1. Letterman
2. O’Brien
3. Leno
4. the rest of the guys aren’t that funny
I got sick of Leno a long time ago. His monologue is: 5 Bush is stupid jokes + 4 HOMOsapien jokes + 1 Clinton sex joke + 1 crooked democrat joke. Mix them up and that’s the monologue. Then come back with the little intern fairy. YUCK! Now, I watch high-brow shows like ‘Two and a Half Men”.
Leno needs new GOOD writers!
These are NOT funny!
What little I’ve seen has been a yawn!
Leno does a decent job, the best before-sleeping-time entertainment (e.g. low key, entertaining).
Letterman is just a bitter old guy, trying to propagate his political views.
o’Brian was never funny and still behaves like a 5 year old graving for attention.
Fergusson is the only one at least trying to be innovative and not acting all up like he literally invented television.
Late night talk died with the passing of Johnny Carson. The current crew are as pathetic as they come.
Leno sucks.
Many of you are not reading the story correctly, just the headline. Basically, the story says that things are back to where they were before Conan took over. The ratings dip is a normal correction from the rating jump of the Tonight Show handover. Advantage, Jay.
OK, then explain this: Friday a.m. there are two separate wire and blog reprots that Leno’s Tonight Show is losing money and that at the present rate NBC will have to oust him. I bet you wish you could retract your moronic comment now.
Credit to Nellie for breaking the news. I’m sure the Fox News and NY Post stories today are by reporters who read her post yesterday.
To those of you who are stuck stupid whining about what Leno did Conan — your talentless idol turned around and did the same thing to George Lopez.
You should get your facts straight. Conan was well aware that going to TBS would push George Lopez back. But Lopez in fact called Conan and told him the move would be okay.
Lopez was being gracious and had no choice. Just like Jay when Conan kicked him off.
I hate leno.There is a god. And he is avenging my much loved and
extremely funny CoCo.
I haven’t watched NBC since they fired Conan.
the closet I get are some of their cable networks like Syfy, and USA. but the NBC channel itself is dead to me until Jay’s gone.