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2ND UPDATE: It was a great opening for Conan O’Brien on TBS last night. The comedian’s eponymous talk show drew big 4.2 million viewers and massive 3.3 million adults 18-49 and 2.5 million in 18-34 to rank as the top-rated latenight show on TV – broadcast or cable – last night. This was an impressive 2/3+ of the audience he attracted for his debut on NBC’s The Tonight Show in May 2009. Conan ranked as the No.1 latenight talk show telecast of all time on basic cable, beating The Daily Show‘s Oct. 29, 2008 edition. It also topped all other latenight telecasts in basic cable history. The show’s median age was also impressive: 30, the lowest among all latenight shows and half of that for the big broadcast latenight franchises.
Conan towered over its direct competition, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (1.3 million; 690,000 in 18-49) and The Colbert Report (1 million; 550,000 in 18-49) and also beat its broadcast counterparts, Leno (3.5 million, 952,000 in 18-49) and Letterman (3.4 million; 1.3 million in 18-49). While Leno and Letterman are not direct competitors as their airtime is shifted by a half-hour, beating soundly The Tonight Show must have been gratifying for Conan following his dismissal from the show 9 months ago. Despite having direct latenight show competition for the first time, The Daily Show was pretty resilient in total viewers, down a modest 13% from its season-to-date Monday viewer average. The hit was bigger in the 18-49 demographic, 21%. Colbert at 11:30 PM followed a similar pattern (down 12% in total viewers, 25% in 18-49 from its season average.) Stewart opened his show by congratulating O’Brien on his return to TV until he “realized” Conan was airing opposite him. (video below the chart.)
The big launch for Conan follows a brilliant campaign that incorporated savvily social media, especially Twitter, Conan’s first outlet following his exit from NBC. “Conan’s audience has been very vocal online, and he clearly made a smooth transition from Twitter to TBS,” said Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment Networks. “Conan delivered an extraordinary audience and stands out as the youngest talk show on television.” (RELATED: Conan’s Monologue & Opening Video) Conan also provided a boost to his lead-out, TBS’ Lopez Tonight, which logged what appear to be the show’s best numbers at least in a long while. Here are fast national data (live + same day) for the main latenight shows last night. Note Letterman’s big lead over Leno in adults 18-49, which comes on the heels of Letterman topping his longtime rival for the first time since Leno retook The Tonight Show:
Late Night Talk Shows: P18-49 (000)
Conan 3285
Late Show w/ Letterman 1336
Tonight Show 952
Lopez Tonight 883
Daily Show 687
Colbert Report 551
Late Night Talk Shows: P2+ (000)
Conan 4155
Tonight Show 3467
Late Show w/ Letterman 3394
Lopez Tonight 1352
Daily Show 1313
Colbert Report 1010
Late Night Talk Shows: P18-34 (000)
Conan 2451
Lopez Tonight 571
Daily Show 455
Colbert Report 367
Late Show w/ Letterman 364
Tonight Show 350
Late Night Talk Shows: Median Age
Conan 30
Lopez Tonight 32
Colbert Report 34
Daily Show 38
Late Show w/Letterman 53
Tonight Show 59
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Congratulations to Conan O’Brien | ||||
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UPDATE TUESDAY AM: Very encouraging preliminary ratings results for TBS’ Conan, which drew a 2.9 household rating, edging its broadcast competition of Leno (2.7) and Letterman (2.5). Of course, Conan has only a half-hour overlap with its broadcast counterparts who start a half-hour later and run through 12:35 AM but a ratings win for him on the first night would nevertheless be impressive.
PREVIOUS MONDAY PM: WHAT RATINGS LEVELS WILL MAKE CONAN A SUCCESS? After a brilliant launch campaign that incorporated social media better than I’ve ever seen, Conan O’Brien’s latenight show is launching tonight on TBS. Expectations are obviously high but what would constitute success for his new cable show? The bar in the 11 PM time slot he is taking over was set very low by his predecessor George Lopez who has been trailing all late-night competition with 600,000+ total viewers, 400,000+ of them in the 18-to-49 demographic. Conan is a lock to improve on that. The question is by how much? While the 6 million+ audience he drew for his Tonight Show debut is probably out of reach, attracting half or more of that during tonight’s TBS premiere would be a big success.
Insiders say that, at least in the beginning, he should be able to stay above 2 million viewers on average, which is what he did at the same time last year on NBC. Demo-wise, anything in the range of 1 million viewers and above will be considered a great performance. Also, at least initially, Conan should be able to beat his broadcast rivals Letterman and Leno in the 18-49 demo. As Jon Stewart just proved with his October victory that it’s doable for a cable latenight show to beat the established latenight broadcast completion.
TNT and TBS are arguably the most established cable networks with distribution comparable to that of the broadcast networks. It also has been charging ad rates comparable to broadcast nets. Cable shows like Conan, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report also benefit by the fact that they only run Monday through Thursdays, excluding the low-rated Friday nights as well as all repeats) As for Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and Colbert Report, O’Brien actually has a chance to upstage them, at least initially, because of the timing for his launch. The Comedy Central shows thrive in busy political times. With the November elections behind us, there is enough political fatigue to give Conan an opening.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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If he gets one viewer for every time his name’s been mentioned in the media this calendar year alone, his show will be watched by eleventy infinity people.
I watched the show last night and it was the same old tired NBC jokes. If you want real laughs, watch Jon Stewart. If you want stale jokes from 9 months ago, watch Conan.
Stewart is as lame as Obama. Conan rules Dude!
You mean 30 mins of liberal propaganda?
If only Stewart was as funny as he thinks he is.
John Stewart is a liberal retard who hasn’t had an original thought in his life… Conan rules!!!
Conan SUX bigtime. Figures retarded conservatives like the stale crap he puts out every night.
You know that Conan and Stewart are friends, right? Just because their shows are competing, doesn’t mean that THEY are competing. Stewart and Colbert made guest appearances when he did his live tour across the country. And Conan’s a liberal. How did you miss that?
Jon Stewart? Who is he? wasn’t he an apologist for the failure of Socialism and the pathetic Obama administration?
Go Conan! You Barbarian!
Thank you for your kind words Jason, be sure to submit your invoice to the Ed Sullivan Theatre, I’ll be writing that check asap.
Nice job!
his presents on screen relates to the same old adolescent stick, with him grasping for anything that might be funny, i call it bafoon humor, i wonder if one of his followers have ever read a book.
Only if Stewart was half as smart as he thinks he is
STOP POLITICISING EVERYTHING!!! FFUUUUUCCCKKKK!!! They are ENTERTAINERS doing COMEDY shows. Not politicians trying to steal your fucking baby. YOU IDIOTS ARE RUINING EVERYTHING WITH YOUR LEFT/RIGHT MENTALITY!!!
why are any of these late-night guys mentioned? they are just a bunch of self-important semi-comics who provide a bit of mindless prattle for viewers too tired or too wound up after a busy day to click off the tv. there hasn’t been a comic on tv since pryor or seinfield.
i’ll give you pryor but seinfield? no. no f***ing way. the last comic to really offer something was bill hicks.
Seinfeld? Get serious, man! Never could see any humor in him.
The real question isn’t what happens in the next few weeks, but in the next few months. His ratings will be sky high for a while, but where will they land when they eventually come down to Earth.
I think it depends what type of show he produces. Will it be like Conan’s Tonight Show, or will it be like Conan’s Late Night? Or does he decide to totally revamp his image and pursue a different format? Honestly I don’t know which is the winning formula but I do think it will come down to which Conan the majority of the voters want to see. If he guesses wrong then this could be all for not.
Good question, Trey.
They will land in the 1:30 a.m. time slot when he can no longer bore us to death.
One factor nobody’s made much of is that TBS distributes one signal to all time zones. That means Conan competes against 800p prime time programming in the west. West of the Mississippi, he’s going to be the only hip talk / variety option in prime time; he’s not going head to head against Stewart, Leno or Dave. That ought to be good for a tenth of a point or two.
Well, that’s odd. I live on the West Coast and Conan doesn’t start until 11.
Well, me too, and I just watched Conan 8p-9p.
It depends what provider you have. I have ATT, which provides the normal TBS feed and the TBS west feed. I just watched it at 11.
there is a single feed on direct tv and dish. cable providers get the dual feed. so if you have satellite conan is on at 8 on the west coast. if you have cable it’ll be on at 11. many networks are set up this way.
The DirecTV single feed is true for Comedy Central as well, so Conan airs directly opposite Daily Show and Colbert in the West.
You probably have cable from Comcast or some other company. Dish Network has the east coast feed at eight o’clock Pacific time
All Conan does is write jokes on Twitter. It’s hardly a novel concept. It’s basically his monologue in written form. Popularity on Twitter doesn’t always mean success. Just look at the box office from Scott Pilgrim!
I say his ratings start at a million or so and go downhill from there.
Did you actively work at being this wrong, or was a lucky stab in the dark?
This comment is too idiotic for words. You picked one tiny bit of his show, (maybe about 1% of the jokes) and called it the entire show.
Kill Yourself.
Well you have just proved how worthless your posts are. Not to bright are you? Probably because your watching that jon stewert crap.
His ratings will be very very high at first and then… probably around 1 million on average. TBS will be very happy. Conan can do his thing and not be bothered.
Sounds like a win for everyone.
All preem nights are good. Let’s see what he gets next week.
What’s his yearly contract with TBS compared to what he got at NBC?
I thought his show was very good tonight and I plan on being a regular viewer
Conan is absolutely phenomenal! He is the wittiest, most entertaining, classiest, and most humble talk show host out there today. His show tonight was hilarious, and he will be a GUARANTEED success. He has an extremely loyal following that has been highly anticipating his return tonight. He will bring all of his previous loyal fans with him from his former shows…discovering twitter is just a bonus for him, because his “tweets” are one of the VERY FEW that are actually FUNNY and worth looking at. The fact that Conan is on cable now, is actually an advantage for him, considering the fact that he can be more himself, which is a quick, witty, hilarious, on-the-fly, goofball. Being on the Tonight Show constricted his humor too much and he wasn’t completely able to be himself. You can tell he had to hold back a lot on the Tonight Show, which obviously didn’t help. Cable is a perfect fit for Conan’s talent. NBC doesn’t deserve Conan – He is the FUTURE of talk show hosts and he will live a long, prosperous life as one of the best talk show hosts in history. Finally, George Lopez is probably one of the luckiest people in show business right now to have somebody as talented and high profile as CONAN to precede his show. TBS is loving life right now. GO TEAM COCO!
geez.. using “conan” and “classiest” in the same sentence is absurd. he has been nothing but an immature, whiny, baby through this whole ordeal, blaming EVERYONE but himself. he took no responsibility for his failure. He did the same thing to Lopez that NBC wanted to do to him……so now it’s ok, cuz it’s “COCO”?
of course the ratings are going to be sky high this week, the promotion has been unbelieveable, but he won’t beAt Jon & Stephen, they are way funnier & more interesting.
He DID beat Colbert and Stewart. How’s that crow taste?
He didn’t fail. He was doing well on the Tonight Show. Better than what Leno is doing currently, in fact. Not as good as Leno was doing before, though. But was still putting on a much better show, in my opinion.
When Leno took over for Johnny Carson, he got CREAMED in the ratings by Letterman for over two solid YEARS. And NBC gave him a chance.
And technically, he didn’t fail – NBC wanted to keep him, just at a later timeslot. Jay Leno’s 10PM show is what failed, forcing them to try to move him to 11:30 to keep him from leaving the network…screwing over Conan in the process. So he quit. He wasn’t fired. He didn’t fail. NBC failed, which is evident in Leno’s current ratings.
Jay Leno didn’t face head-to-head competition from David Letterman until late Auigust of 1993, some fifteen months aftwer Leno succeeded Johnny.
What are you smokin’?
You are an idiot. Conan is pure talent.Jon and Stephen are hacks. Go hit your bong you mental miget. Conan showed absolute class at the end of his NBC stay. I thought he acutally took it easy on them. He is an original and writes alot of his own stuff. I am sure Jon and Stephen couldn’t write their own material if their life depended on it, or if they where sober.
Jon and Stephen are hacks? Wow – did you fall out of a very tall tree and land on your head?! Jon Stewart is one of the smartest guys in TV period. And Stephen is smart enough not to compete with that so he PLAYS stupid. Team COCO has an axe to grind but please don’t use it on everyone it just dulls what you are saying!
lol if you’ve watched stewart in interviews he is not a smart guy
Yes, those two Rhodes scholars have figured out how to get the lowest audiences for the shows listed. They’re so smart.
Actually, contrary to how Leno handled the situation at NBC, Conan had lengthy discussions with George Lopez about the time change of his show and only agreed to go on at 11 if George was okay with it. When you get down to brass tacks, George welcomed the change to midnight, and his ratings are now benefiting immensely because of his awesome, new lead-in…
Agreed….
jon&steve suck. Liberal crap. They are perfect examples of what happens when little boys play with themselves too often. You are too.
Conan has more class than any of the late night guys combined, with the possible exception of Craig Ferguson.
Conan has hardly whined and blamed others – he simply refused to compromise his integrity. Leno, on the other hand, failed miserably in his stupid attempt to stay in the limelight, and HE threw his big fat chin around to get back the Tonight Show. Even though the plan for Conan to take over had been agreed on long ago.
He’s funny, self depracting, and genuinely cares about his audience, his guests, and his staff. Nove concept among late night hosts, it would seem.
the tonight show is an iconic brand. george lopez wont have a show in acouple weeks. tardo. jay leno is a power hungry slob with no sense of humor. move the tonight show to 12:05?! HOW COULD CONAN BE SO INCONSIDERATE HAHAHA
Hey! Are you one of those zany TBS flacks who handed out those crazy giant TBS buttons that *laugh* when you squeeze them? If so, WELL DONE!
*barfs*
Conan is not witty unless you’re a twit. He’s dumdum humor.
Hate the fake hair, too.
You are a tirade driven retard. CONAN SUX so bad – lame jokes – cats like a clown. Funny only to IQ’s <80.
CURIOUS, when did “Stewie” and his 5, 827 writers make the move to “Late Night”?
I enjoyed it and will continue to watch too, I’ve been a fan of Conan’s for a long time. I’m also a huge fan of Stewart/Colbert, but I like to DVR and watch those the next day (so I don’t go to sleep angry at stupid politicians and pundits!).
I hope the show does well, and look forward to them developing new running jokes, characters etc. I’m only a bit disappointed they didn’t move the show back to NY, only because I always enjoyed when he would go out into the city and do something ridiculous. But I understand not wanting to uproot everyone AGAIN.
I’m sure the ratings and money are much smaller than he had with NBC, but I also think he will have a lot more freedom and ownership of the show, which (especially when you’re already wealthy) is worth a lot.
I’m sick and tired of the “I’m Conan and even though I’ve had an amazing life in tv since leaving college and am worth 100 million dollars I’m still a victim” bull shit. Just get on with it!
Yeah, I don’t get the personal attachment some fans feel for this guy.
Maybe because the public has a tendency to support those who get stabbed in the back by Jay Leno.
Leno didnt stab anyone in the back
You’re right — he just doesn’t have any morals to speak of. Those are two very different things.
I don’t get the cynical nature of the anti-Conan crowd.
Actually, I think he’s said multiple times in interviews that he’s been incredibly fortunate in his career and that people shouldn’t feel sorry for him. Not sure how that makes him a victim.
Wow. Heavy promo, hype and woe-is-me campaign and he received a gigantic .1 above Leno. Really?????
Leno got 952,000 in the 18-49 demo which is all that counts. That’s awful.
Isn’t that actually pretty good, considering it’s LENO? That’s about what Stewart and Colbert get in that demo, and they’re considered the voices of a new generation. I love Conan, but it seems to me that Leno’s somehow getting a pretty decent slice of the young demo pie PLUS all the oldsters.
Wasn’t it the same with Carson vs. Arsenio? Leno’s battling a BUNCH of WHITE Arsenios and still doing decently.
Are you serious?? Do you realize that as of 6 weeks ago Leno was getting 1.4 million 18-49? And that two years ago he was getting about 2 million in 18-49? 950,000 is awful.
When you lose the 18-49 to an old goat like Letterman by a half million viewers, it’s time to hang it up.
…there’s a ‘white Arsenio’ joke in there somewhere, isn’t there?
.1??? Try reading the ratings comparisons again. Conan kicked ass.
Gotta admit. Not a Conan fan but the show was funny. He’s better when not so reined in.
I think TBS is caught somewhere between ESPN6 and nowhere. I’m afraid I might break my remote if I go up that high.
TBS will do everything it takes to assure Conan’s success. He has a good home at last. The road has risen to meet him.
Re: Conan ratings. Wait until the novelty wears off…like tomorrow or the next day!
‘Eponymous’ refers to the person, not the thing.
The show is self-titled. Conan is the eponymous host.
It can refer to either one, actually. This usage is correct.
Everyone remembers that classic R.E.M. album “Self-Titled”.
TBS’s moniker = “Very funny.” Conan’s premiere episode? Not so much.
You must me an engineer, John C…Read, no sense of humor.
Viva Conando!
On December 17, 1969, Tiny Tim married Victoria Mae Budinger (aka “Miss Vicki”) on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, a publicity stunt that attracted some 40 million viewers.
Now that’s a late night audience.
Go Team CoCo!
How awful was George Lopez’s show? I’m sure a gush of new viewers stayed tuned after Conan to give his show a shot, and what does Lopez do? 5 minutes of stale Bush jokes. Unbelievable.
You are exactly right- GL looked adequately stoned during his monologue . Janet Jackson looked fine as usual but she was pretty reserved as compared to her earlier appearance on Leno.
If they sandwich him in between Family Guy reruns and replace Lopez with Adult Swim (TBS is trying to take on Comedy Central) then he will do fine.
it was funny until he brought out Seth Rogen (snooooore) and I couldn’t watch anymore.
watch these numbers fall behind Leno/Letterman within a week. 30 year old hipster douchebags cannot be counted on to be a stable audience, unlike red state hicks who will always watch Leno.
No matter what his ratings are, he’s my hero.
I’ve missed him so much. I’m so happy. So happy. So happy. So happy. So happy. So happy. So happy. So happy. So happy.
I think what’s most interesting here is the dwindling and fragmenting of tv audiences, where 4 million people wins the lion’s share for late night tv.