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UPDATE 9:45AM: The fast nationals for Conan’s second show on TBS are in. It drew 2.8 million viewers, down 33% from its premiere audience and lower than its broadcast counterparts. Despite the decline, Conan is expected to once again dominate the young demos with 2.1 million viewers in 18-49 (down 35%) and 1.4 million in 18-34 (down 42%). Its median age stayed steady at around 30, probably still the youngest in latenight.
PREVIOUS 7:30AM: A ratings dropoff after the big Monday night premiere of Conan was inevitable: the question was how steep it was going to be. In the metered markets, the TBS show posted a 2.1 rating last night (when adjusted for Mountain time zone), down 28% from the premiere, which beat all latenight shows. Last night, Letterman drew a 3.0/8, Leno 2.5/7, and Nightline 3.2. More data will be available soon.
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Uhhhh How does a 2.0 beat a 3.0?
your reading comprehension’s off mate… “down 28% from the premiere, which beat all latenight shows”… means the premiere beat the all the latenight shows.
ya must be a jaytard.
The post is referring to the fact that Conan beat everybody on MONDAY night, not last night.
Confused…it was poorly written…it took me a re-read to get what was being said.
i saw it coming…too bad for conan.
this is real good. and in demo conan sure beats jay leno.
Not bad at all, really – even after the drop, he’s doing quite well considering he’s on basic cable.
Too bad for Conan? These are still fabulous numbers and when 18-49 come in (the only numbers that matter) he’ll still be beatign them all handily. On TBS, vs. network televison!. Even if his demo declines to to around 1 eventually, that’s still ahead of where the networks have been landing lately. Very impressive. Anyway, that’s not even Conan’s real competion, though that’s what the media focuses on. His real competition is John Stewart and it looks like Conan will be competitive to say the least.
True. And the bigger story here is that Nightline finished first, letterman second and poor old Jay Leno was third. Conan continues to lure more viewers from Leno than Letterman. Amazing.
That’s not a surprising drop from a huge start. He’s an established player and will have ups and downs like most talk shows. Welcome back Conan! At least you’re funny, which is more than I can say about Letterman and Leno, who are both too old and predictable.
Let’s get real here. This is an unmitigated disaster for Conan and TBS. He is already under Letterman and Leno in his second night out, and with Tom Hanks no less. And I love the way TBS is hyping that “30 year old” demo average. It’s not like he’s added 30 year olds since his ill-fated Tonight Show run, rather, he’s lost about three million older viewers already who can’t find TBS or don’t like the stench of basic cable. Conan was still riding high on Day 2 of the Tonight Show but here on TBS he’s already lost close to one-third of Monday’s viewers. By this time next week he’ll be regularly beaten by Stewart and Colbert. This show is only headed in one direction.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. TBS is a minor cable channel competing against the networks. There’s a different dynamic when it comes to cable channels. The decrease of 28% isn’t a big deal because it’s expected after the first night. In fact if Conan even keeps a 1.5 to 2.0 rating on TBS, that will be a huge success.
Anyone watch Lopez last night? Um, what was going on there? The guy stumbled through that monolog part of the show and seemed, um, “out of it”.
Indeed. Last night’s show was hilarious with Tom Hanks. Anyone who didn’t like it can go ‘Tokyo Sandblaster’ themselves.
@ Confused
The premiere beat all latenight shows, not the follow up.
What suprises me about all this is that Leno doesn’t seem to be taking his current situation seriously.His ratings are down, he now has a new timeslot competitor, there’s rumors of NBC looking to replace him… and he just isn’t stepping up his game. The same old show, night after night. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” used to be fine… but, Jay, with all due respect…it’s starting to break, and it’s time for a bit of maintenence.
Most intelligent people don’t believe “rumors”. Too bad Team Coco can’t let it go and move on. What a bunch of sore losers. Your man got his own show; why continue bellyaching about Jay Leno?
Your efforts to “pollute the air” by planting rumors and fabrications on every social media site won’t work. Jay’s like a cat with nine lives. You’ll need to get up a lot earlier if your ultimate goal is to bring down Leno.
If Conan didn’t try so damn hard to be soooo funny I might be able to tolerate him but it all seems so forced. Back to Charlie Rose.
“Forced” is the same word that comes to mind when watching Conan.
Conan tries to be funny… so what, that is what comedians do. Forced?? Yeah, at certain times he comes off that way, but he is not an established old relic like the other talk show hosts that you are used to. A bomb could go off in the lap of Jay or Dave and they wouldn’t blink. Conan is hilarious. His writers are great, and his show on TBS is looking very much like his late-late night show on NBC that was a solid success. That show was never lacking in hilarity. I wish him the best… I love having him on TV @ 11 pm.
These numbers aren’t all that useful as they aren’t the 18-49 ratings.
Conan’s first show skewed very very young, which means his 18-49 ratings will crush all the other competitors. He’ll be near 1.9 while the others will be struggling near 1.0.
I’m still unsure of where/why folks thought Conan would beat everyone in the ratings when he wasn’t able to do so when he was on The Tonight Show. The premiere attracted the curiosity factor but viewers are creatures of habit so why would I break my pattern to watch someone who got fired? Blame Jay all you want but Conan has his fanbase and it’s not going to light up the ratings charts. Given that it’s TBS expect the ratings to continue to decline as viewers will stick with the Big Three.
Um… what? First off, Conan wasn’t fired by NBC. NBC tried to jerk him around, so he chose to leave.
And besides, why would that even be a factor in whether or not you’d watch his show? People watch what they enjoy. If you don’t enjoy Conan, that’s all fine and well. But you’d be hard-pressed to find many viewers who base their viewing decisions on whether or not things worked out with the host’s previous employer.
You can spin it however you choose, but he WAS fired.
Actually he left. He was not fired. There is, in fact, a complete world of difference. He had the option of leaving and chose it. NBC wanted him to stay and move to a later night. He was contractually allowed to leave and did so by choice.
You’re wrong. Live with it.
If Conan was contractually allowed to leave and did so by choice, why was there a huge negotiated settlement with NBC?
He was fired from a Tonight Show with a starting time of 11:35PM. He was offered a later starting time instead. He chose not to accept that offer. Rather than go through an acrimonious court battle, both sides negotiated an exit.
By this logic, then Leno was “fired” (and subsequently rehired, just as Conan would have been) too. Fuck, his show was even cancelled.
Your reasoning is profoundly flawed. Do not come back until you take a class in composing a coherent argument. For someone who insinuates all Conan’s fans are idiots, you sure as hell can’t construct a smart defense to save your life.
your an idiot. he was not fired. Jays show was doing so pathetic that local affiliates were complaing to NBC about the poor lead in to their lucrative local newcasts. NBC tried to accomodate by bumping the tonite show back an hour. Conan wouldnt play their game. It was cheaper for NBC to get rid of Conan than Jay.
Did you see Leno’s numbers Monday night for viewers 18-34? 350,000. It’s like he’s not even on the air with people under 35. They think he’s dead. It doesn’t look to me like those viewers are “sticking with the big 3.” TBS is investing in the next 15 years, while NBC is mired in 1995.
People are fleeing from the Big 3 in late night (and everywhere else) in droves, especially those under 50. Its just a matter of the many cable channels each scooping up as many as they can. The real competition here is between the Daily Show and Conan, not to mention Adult Swim, ESPN etc.
That’s not true. Young viewers aren’t fleeing Letterman in significant numbers. they’re not fleeing Kimmel. They’re fleeing Jay. Why? He’s old, antiquated, and immoral.
Give me a break. They’re not with Jay because he’s not considered cool. That’s kinda what happens when you’re the victim of a vicious smear campaign. Can you imagine how quickly a college kid would get shunned if they told anyone they watched Jay? If a smear campaign is successful it doesn’t prove anything except that smear campaigns work. These people weren’t around when Conan and NBC screwed over Jay so to them it never happened. Their guy is Jesus, Jay is the devil, and no facts can get in the way. It’s so high school. Grow up.
Check out what the latenight 18-49s are now for networks now and compare them to two or three years ago. “Plumetting” is the word that comes to mind. I love Letterman, but his show is no exception.
Anonymous,
How can you imply that Letterman and Kimmel, etc. have fallen at the same rate as Jay, when, in fact, 2-3 years ago (using your benchmark) Leno had DOUBLE the 18-49 ratings as Letterman, and now he has lower 18-49 ratings?
While it may be true that 18-49 has dropped across the board, “plummeting” is too strong a word, unless you’re referring to Jay. And did you know that Kimmel, Stewart and Fallon are UP from where they were last year? ‘enuff said,.
Ugh, Break, you are so off-base, it’s almost funny. ALMOST.
Jay had been bleeding in that demographic a full year before Conan took over. Look it up. But it’s true, the whole scene is depressed right now. That’s why Nightline has regularly been trouncing both Letterman and Leno. It’s not a personal attack on Leno, but if it had to be, it would make full sense, given his past failures in key demographics.
Leno’s how hasn’t changed in years. The NY times has an article out right now detailing how Leno’s losing viewers and Fallon has since been gaining them. It makes a point about younger viewers who are tired of the traditional “observational humor” and “comedy of hate” that Leno employs. Here’s a reality check if you didn’t already know: on jaywalking, he’s laughing at YOU, not with you.
This guy is just as bumbling though. Someone so inept that he makes Bush look like Fearless Leader. Took him forever to fire the only agent he’s ever had, because he liked someone taking the fall for him until it was too late.
No one likes so repeatedly being told they’re stupid, and perhaps you should consider that this is precisely the effect Leno has had for years, and why Conan was always more popular with the college kids to begin with. Now, go read a book or something.
Numbers don’t matter much these days thanks to niche markets. I love Conan, and that’s all that matters to me.
“Numbers don’t matter…” that’s what NBC said…NOT
I predict that by the end of the second week Conan will have less than 1 million viewers. Sad to say, but Conan is just not funny. His humor is forced and he looks uncomfortable. Conan should go back to being a writer of TV shows and movies. Some people should stay behind the camera and not try to force themselves into being a ‘star’ in front the camera.
Such an enlightened comment when talking about a guy who’s had a late night talk show for the last 20 years.
Sad to say, but you have no clue what you are talking about. Conan has been successful with the 18-34 crowd most of his 17 years as a talk show host and it looks like that won’t stop anytime soon.
I have to say that Conan’s show will have to get funnier to keep me watching. I used to watch “Late Night” (Letterman and Conan versions) to see what insanity would happen next. The Thrill Cam. The Dancing Waters. The Masturbating Bear. The Interrupter. The Raccoon with a jet pack. From what I see with Conan’s show, I expect he’ll… be talking to actors. Not fun.
Ummm… we’ve seen a grand total of two shows.
Fact: Before he went to 11:30, Conan was losing two nights a week to Craig Ferguson, who had a smaller lead-in with Letterman.
Fact: Leno’s numbers are now lower than Conan’s when he came back.
Fact: Everyone’s numbers are down, but Letterman’s have dropped the least. It’s not even close.
Conan will settle in at 1.3, less than what he was doing at 12:30, and just like people do with Stewart and Colbert, they’ll say the numbers aren’t important, that the audience is devout.
For the life of me, I can never understand why Late Night is the only area where regular people are ratings-obsessed.
Ratings only matter if shows are in danger of being cancelled. None of these shows are going to get cancelled. They make too much money.
I don’t know why there’s all this talk about age demographics. When I was 25, in 1990, I watched Johnny not Dave. Johnny was king, Leno would be second, Dave third, and “Coco” a distant last.
Coco would be a distant last for me in 1990 too. Probably because he didn’t have a TV show until ’93.
Ok folks, let’s be honest here…everyone bashing the ratings for going down, what else did you expect? Of course his numbers are going to go down from the first…episode…ever where there was high visibility and a curiosity factor. The fact that he still pulled in 2.8 million viewers to a late-night basic cable talk show is huge. More importantly, and where ratings bashers need to really realize the guy is going to be just fine, is that of his 2.8 million viewers for episode two, virtually ALL of them were in the 18-49 demo. You tell me who’s ratings are in the tank…
From a creative standpoint, it was only episode two! Give the guy some time to get settled and figure out what will work and what doesn’t. Personally I felt like this episode was much better than the premiere and featured more subversive humor, both sketches were funny and featured that wacky, irreverant humor…and the interviews were much improved over the premiere.
Give CoCo some time, we’re acting like he’s a failure already.
Nobody’s acting like he’s a failure. Except delusional Leno fans, and NBC plants who post on this website.
I think we’re all missing the point here. As long as Conan is able to do HIS show without getting fired, he’ll be the happiest guy in the room. He already gave a big F-YOU to Leno and NBC, and by extension, network television in general. And seriously, what would it take in terms of ratings for him to start feeling heat from the TBS execs? He’s got nothing to worry about.
Actually, NBC had already said F-YOU to Conan.
And look where that got them? Their ratings are still in the shitter for practically everything, even after their bizarre last-minute heel-face turn on scripted programming. Management at Comcast is out for blood. Conan escaped the Titanic. Do you think is laughing harder?
Zucker or him?
First, I’m a Conan fan, but a pretty tough Conan fan. I liked part of the Monday episode but, overall, felt pretty disappointed. I liked the Tuesday episode a lot better. Maybe there were directing/producer/technical glitches Monday that got worked out Tuesday.
Second, to me, it seems as if TBS has already gotten a lot of value out of this, no matter how Conan does in the long run, because there are Conan premiere viewers like me who weren’t sure what channel TBS was on who now know where the channel is, and people like my spouse who’d never heard of TBS at all who now know what it is.
i heard leno might leave again
All TBS shows will get a boost because of the attention on Conan’s show, just like all NBC shows,including prime time, are not even given a chance by anyone under 55 because of the stank emanating off Leno’s Tonight Show.
No surprise, really. Most people likely tuned in (or DVR’d) the first show out of curiosity more than anything else. And since TBS airs the show twice nightly – only interrupted by Lopez Tonight – that further cannibalizies the audience numbers.
Conan does more of what his previous shows did – there wasn’t really anything new. Conan is now 47. It would be interesting to compare other late night hosts at this same age and see who really was groundbreaking and entertaining. Put Conan at 47 up against Jack Paar, Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, Dave Letterman, and Jay Leno and see who really knows what they are doing.
I don’t think Conan would win, place, or show.
Agree
If you’re going to be blatantly biased, then okay. But for those of us who live in the real world and can recognize fallacies like this one, let’s compare.
Tonight Show 1.0 vs. Jay Leno show vs. Tonight Show 2.0.
How much really changed there, other than the sets?
Late Night with David Letterman vs. Late Show
Here too, I ask, where are these profound “groundbreaking and entertaining” changes you suggest?
Conan’s comedy was different from the start. Where have you been? He built a whole niche audience out of the sort of absurdist, da-da type humor of the Masturbating Bear, Interrupter, Green Screen Desk, In The Year 2000… etc.
Point is: it’s not just Conan. Most hosts don’t change material often once they’re comfortable where they are. Are you going to also apply this standard to John Stewart, who’s been on the air now for what… 13 years and hasn’t really revamped his show’s format either?
No, of course not. This is a hit on Conan, a duly unfair one I might add.
P.S. Another thing Letterman and Leno had the benefit of was they maintained all their sketches and other IPs legally. Conan didn’t get that in his severance deal, but has said he is willing to go to court for some of it while in the meantime, doing some new things. The reason you haven’t seen new things yet? It’s been two fucking shows. Be patient. I think it’s more of an indictment against Letterman and Leno that they had old material to continue mining than it is against Conan.
Time is on his side. Letterman and Leno, however, will both be retired in the next 5-7 years.
I haven’t watched it yet but I’m interested in knowing how much TBS is promoting Glory Daze, its new show debuting next week, during Conan?
Let’s get real here. This is an unmitigated disaster for Conan and TBS. He is already under Letterman and Leno in his second night out, and with Tom Hanks no less. And I love the way TBS is hyping that “30 year old” demo average. It’s not like he’s added 30 year olds since his ill-fated Tonight Show run, rather, he’s lost about three million older viewers already who can’t find TBS or don’t like the stench of basic cable. Conan was still riding high on Day 2 of the Tonight Show but here on TBS he’s already lost close to one-third of Monday’s viewers. By this time next week he’ll be regularly beaten by Stewart and Colbert. This show is only headed in one direction.
This show was just a curiosity item but if he can maintain a 2.5-2.8 rating consistently, he should be OK.
Jed, you’re joking right? He did a 2.8 his second night. You think he’ll maintain this? Makes no sense.
Go back and look at his second night on the Tonight Show and then look at what he was doing two months later. A third of that, a quarter of that maybe.
It’s new, Jed. There’s an arc to these things. Why are people assuming that if he failed on network he’s bound to succeed on cable? No logic there. He was a failure at 11:30. TBS is paying him for the attention and so they can feel like machers. He’ll get a 1 if he’s lucky after things settle down. If he’s lucky.
And if he’s luckier, TBS will decide not to cancel his expensive show that only gets a 1.
So I’ve heard conflicting reports on this… do DVRs factor into ratings or no?
NBC bet on the wrong horse. Leno is the past, Conan is the future.
BWAHAHAHAHA! 5 years prior NBC actually believed the way you did and thought that Conan was the future and Jay was the past. They actually bet on Conan and gave The Tonight Show to him where he immediately drove it into a ditch. Then they gave the Tonight Show back to Jay.
You’re either delusional or in denial. NBC lost the bet and fixed the situation. Your hypothesis has been empirically demonstrated to be nonsense.