Zach Braff’ Ends ‘Wish I Was Here’ … 
Fox President Of Alternative Programming Mike Darnell To … 
FIRST BOX OFFICE: ‘Fast & Furious 6′ Easy … 
NBC Sets Oklahoma Tornado Benefit Concert For May 29 
Cannes: Directors’ Fortnight Honors ‘Les … 
SHOCKER: Tom Cruise Exits ‘Man From … 
A+E Rebuild: BBC’s Jana Bennett To Run Bio And LMN … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Hannibal’ Hits Low, … 
‘Katie’ Shakeup: Rachel Miskowiec Replaces … 
Hammond On Cannes: French Hero Jerry Lewis On His Return To … 
Cannes: Another Jewelry Heist? $2.6M Necklace Missing After … 
Hammond On Cannes: Leo DiCaprio’s Moon Trip Tops … 
Specialty B.O. Preview: ‘Before Midnight’, … 
2012-2013 Season Network Rankings: CBS Sweeps In Final … 
Full 2012-2013 TV Season Series Rankings 
TOLDJA! Paramount Pocketing $190M From Disney For Marvel … 
‘Good Morning America’ Hits 19-Year Viewership … 
MGM Buys ‘Modern Family’ Producer Ben … 
‘Fashion Police’ Writers Chant On Picket Lines: … 
Universal Makes Seven-Figure Deal For ‘The School For … 
Steven Soderbergh Will Interrupt Retirement To Direct And … 
NBC won three nights in primetime last week, and its ratings gains also carried over to late-night. Both Jay Leno (4.2 million viewers) and Jimmy Fallon (1.9 million) hit season highs in total viewers. for the week of Dec. 13-17. Leno also topped Letterman and Nightline/Jimmy Kimmel in every key category and also prevailed over Conan O’Brien’s TBS show (1.1 rating vs. 0.7) in adults 18-49 for a fourth straight week. Fallon too topped Ferguson and Kimmel in every major category.
Leno widened his margin of victory over Letterman in 18-49 to 22% in viewers (1.402 million vs. 1.149 million), up from a 3% win for the same week last year when Conan was the host of The Tonight Show. Similarly, Fallon topped Late Late Show for the week by 25% (861,000 vs. 689,000), up from last year’s 3%.
Versus the first 13 weeks of last season, Tonight is matching its year-ago 1.0 rating in adults 18-49 and is 6% below its year-ago 18-49 viewership, while CBS’ Late Show is down 10% in rating (0.9 vs. 1.0) and down 14% in 18-49 viewers. In total viewers, Tonight is up 52% versus last season, Late Show is down 15%.
ABC’s Nightline was second for the week among total viewers (3.87 million) and adults 18-49 (1.24 million). Season-to-date, Nightline ranks in first place among viewers and A25-54, the first time the newsmagazine has been in first place at this point in the season since at least the 1993-94 season when the Late Show with David Letterman began on CBS.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
Loading ...
Wow. Leno appears to be made of Teflon. How he does it, defying the odds, simply amazes me. I thought for sure his goose was gonna get the flambeau!
Letterman has got to be bummed.
Bad viewing habits are hard to break.
No, no, no. NBC had bigger lead-ins to Leno than the others, it simply means more people fell asleep with NBC on. Nobody really watched, they just left the TV on whilst snoring in the lazy-boy.
I guess Leno puts on the most consistent and quality product in his genre after all. There is no other explanation to the result, after him winning even despite all the mighty internets being against him.
You’re definitely right. Because viewers=quality, am I right? That’s why Dancing With the Stars is probably the greatest show on television.
Simple answer: Lots of gutless seniors who want their comedy safe when they watch. Leno is white-bread, old-school, no risks with 15 year old O.J. jokes, and Monica Lewinsky jokes. Old people like that safe, comforting “comedy”.
He is leading in the 18-49 demographic so your comments are flat wrong.
2 AND A HALF MEN….NEED I SAY MORE ABOUT PEOPLE’S TASTE?
Hey, you’re entitled to your opinion, but why diss old people? Since when did “OLD” become the new “N-word?” Consider the alternative, shall we: getting old versus dying young. Stop hatin’ — ’cause you would WANT TO LIVE to regret it!
If we are going to stereotype old people, couldn’t you easily say that old people fall asleep before Leno even airs and therefore would not affect his ratings?
Well, Sweden, you may want to note that Jay’s ratings on average are down about 2 million viewers from what they were before the Conan thing. And according to Deadline from a few weeks ago last summer was the lowest rated Tonight Show ever. He won last week because NBC killed in prime time with Sing-A-long and Biggest Loser. Soon, Jay will be in the pits again.
I do agree that Letterman should retire. He’s on vacation so much I never bother switching over to see if he’s live.
Middle America find Leno more entertaining. Bottom line. End of discussion.
It’s time for David Letterman to join Larry King in the boneyard of talk show hosts. If Hollywood is looking for a new Johnny Carson, they need not look further than the incredibly likeable and talented, Paul Rudd. I’d love to see him inherit the hosting chores at the Tonight Show some time in the near future.
A man crush does not a successful late night host make.
Paul Rudd??
People, please don’t post here when drunk.
Conan who?
Kimmel has been dark this week so comparisons don’t mean much
Yup Leno is number one in late night and McDonald’s sells the most burgers.
Both deliver the same quality to their American consumers.
Nightline is no. 1. You can read, right?
And Obama won the popular vote. Your point is well taken.
Any numbers for CHELSEA LATELY? That’s the show I watch
I love Chelsea Lately. She is so funny and she’s funny when she’s on Leno too.
So does this mean the Team Coco nonsense was just a fad, that die just like every other fad?
I hope so…
I suppose the same fad for 18 years? Yes, definitely. Oh, and before that, I guess NBC liked his thing when they hired him to write The Simpsons, and SNL in their prime.
18 years hosting the graveyard shift doesn’t really matter to me because it wasn’t what I was getting at.Also, being a good/bad writer doesn’t have anything to do with hosting a show.Conan ratings in his stint as Tonight Show host were sad, for lack of a better word.So apparently he didn’t have that big of a fanbase from his SNL/Simpson writing days, probably because most people don’t know or care about tv show writers, just the writing.Now to my point, I was asking was the fad over; the fad being all this fake enthusiasm and interest in Conan and his show.Most of the Team Coco cheerleaders were never regular Late Night with Conan O’Brien show watchers, and they definitely weren’t watching Conan on the Tonight Show.So what was all that outrage over conan’s firing really about? To put it simply, it was a fad.Something for people who love to get behind something to do.And now that Conan is back on television and doing his same old schick that got him fire from the Tonight Show because of low ratings, I was wondering is the fad over.
Minor point, but The Simpsons was and still is on Fox. NBC couldn’t very well hire Conan to write The Simpsons.
The nit, it has been picked.
Sigh, I hate how the fate of television shows are in the hands of 25,000 homes out of 115 million…
I think Jay is still down from where he was before handed off the show to Conan. But it’s pretty impressive that he’s managed to recover this well, given the overwhelming amount of negative press, the poor lead-ins (if I’m not mistaken, he’s getting even weaker lead-ins on most nights than he provided to Conan when Jay was at 10) and the fact that Conan handed Jay a much weaker Tonight Show than the one Jay handed to Conan.
Yes, I think everyone’s brand took a hit from the most recent late night meltdown. Even Conan continues to slip in the ratings and has yet to see his new show stabilize.
Ironically, Fallon may have emerged as the surprise winner. He’s managed to land some major (and elusive) guests over the past several months (Jagger, Richards, McCartney, Springsteen), and is able to connect with young viewers in a way that Conan no longer can. Fallon’s show may lack the wit and edge Conan had 20 years ago, but it does have the enthusiasm and energy.
Uh, yeah, you could say Jay is down. From 5.9 million total viewers before he handed off to 3.7 million on average now. He’s still earning the lowest ratings in Tonight Show history.
Reality check: thanks to NBC somehow winning the week (by airing new programming vs. repeats on all the other nets) Leno wasn’t quite as low last week. He’s still doing worse, by far, than he ever has ratings wise, and season-to-date this is still the lowest rated Tonight Show in history. A 50-year franchise earning its lowest ratings ever. Cancel the parade, Deadline.com Leno-shills.
Proves that the average dumb american has no taste – Leno just reads what others write, Dave is a genius – but that’s the story, rise to the lowest expectation.
Well, if it’s any consolation to you, Dave still gets paid more, and since school started in Sept, that means he’s got a fresh supply of female interns.
I’m with Team Coco.
Chelsey Lately is the real winner. She is fresh, direct, and very opinionated. All assets for a winning talk show. Team Chelsey all the way.
Too bad she isn’t funny, and only has her show because of her superior mouth skills.
It would be interesting to do a comparison of the guests on each program. While the level and value of a particular guest may be subjective, it could still help determine whether audiences are tuning in for the guests or a particular host.
As well, there is no mention here of The Daily Show or the Colbert Report. In many markets they go up against Leno and Letterman.
Leno’s ratings are still, what, half what they were before Conan-gate?
It sounds as if Leno is doing OK — probably because the shows that replaced Leno’s primetime show feed more viewers to the local news shows — but it seems as if Conan’s ratings must be good for a basic cable talk show. My guess is that NBC reaches at least 50% more homes than TBS. In homes that get TBS, maybe the 18-49 gap is smaller.
Personally, I’m a Conan fan, and I’ve liked the new show more than I thought I would. It’s rougher than the Tonight Show and more erratic, but Andy and Brian McCann have been great, and I just plain like Conan.
I think that the big problem is that Conan seems a little out of place on TBS. I think he’d fit way better on Comedy Central or SyFy.
Also worth noting for that same week Jon Stewart BEAT Conan in total viewers 1.7 million to Conan’s 1.3 million. And TIED Conan in the Demo he had a 0.7 for that week. Also worth noting Adult Swim beat Both of those two in viewers 1.9 million and the Demo which was a 0.9
I think for the fact that the media was against Jay, half the internet hated on Jay, Dave, Kimmell and Conan himself that Jay is STILL beating them all is very telling. It means that whole load was overrated and hyped
Agree
I guess more people like Wonder bread than something grainier.
Wow. Leno appears to be made of Teflon. How he does it, defying the odds, simply amazes me. I thought for sure his goose was gonna get the flambeau! Letterman has got to be bummed.
The real embarrassing thing for NBC and CBS is that Nightline is no. 1 on about half the budget of Leno & Letterman.
Jay and His Chin have once again emerged victorious in the Ratings Wars,despite all evidence to the contrary. Astounding!
You do realize that these ratings are for one week? And that Letterman, who never, everused to beat Jay, now routinely beats him for a night or an entire week?
Leno narrowly won during a week when NBC killed the competition in prime time. The sad fact is, overall, The Tonight Show ratings have never seen lwoer than in the past year since Jay took the show back. And that incluides the Jack Parr, Steven Allen era., etc.
Lesson here: Jay may not be funny to the coasts or their bloggers, but the flyover states still seem to adore him.
I love Dave, and wouldn’t watch Leno if I was paid to, but…
I gotta admit, Dave has slipped. He’s picked up the annoying habit of recycling his monologue jokes on consecutive nights, sometimes more. I’ve lost count of how many times he’s made the joke that Elin Nordegren (the former Mrs. Tiger Woods) is the top money earner in on the PGA tour this year, but it’s got to be in double digits.
Tonight’s show, he gets a pass on. Jay Thomas talking about how he got “herbed up” and met the Lone Ranger, followed by Darlene Love singing “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” is a yearly tradition. But perhaps it’s time for a refresh of the writing staff.
There is no God
In addition to Kimmel and The Daily Show/Colbert Report being dark or in repeats or whateve, these numbers are heavily skewed by holiday travel. Also, judging Conan by the Nielsen overnights doesn’t exactly tell you the full story with his viewers, because you’re leaving out online streaming.
If you’re spending time with your aged parents, Leno’s the safe milquetoast choice.
Your theory that Kimmel and Stewart/Colbert are dark so Leno won, doesn’t make much sense. Kimmel/Stewart/Colbert viewers aren’t Leno viewers. They are more inclined to watch Letterman or Conan. So why didn’t their numbers go up? Weak theory.
Leno/Letterman
Coke/Pepsi
McDonalds/Burger King
Dumb/Dumber