‘Daily Show’ Claims First Weekly Ratings Victory Over ‘Conan’ In Young Demos

COMMENTS (34)

• Thanks, as always, Nellie! I’m pleasantly surprised at Mo’Nique’s strong numbers, even beating Lopez in most demos.

  I imagine that Daily Show will continue to dominate, at least until after the 2012 election and inaug.

  Comment by Stan — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 1:47pm PST  Reply to this post

• I don’t buy it. Conan has his funny string dance, and a hilarious side kick. Also his show is much longer than the Daily Show, giving him more money from advertisers.

  Team CoCo 4 life!

  Comment by sweden — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 1:58pm PST  Reply to this post

  • I agree with “sweden”. I do not believe in numbers. Therefore, opinions beat facts every time. Team CoCo 3 life!

    Comment by RA Eckart — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 2:42pm PST  Reply to this post

    • Love the sarcasm.

      Comment by redmenace — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 7:18pm PST  Reply to this post

• I watch both but Conan gets time-shifted.

  Comment by daniel — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 2:11pm PST  Reply to this post

  • Indeed, Conan will probably be #1 after the DVR results come in. But from a creative standpoint, Craig Ferguson will always be my #1.

    Comment by John — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 2:23pm PST  Reply to this post

    • I completely agree with John on that

      Comment by Victor — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 7:33pm PST  Reply to this post

• Cue the haters… how long until the Leno fanboys (or fan-old-men) show up? Conan’s doing fine and honestly the ratings aren’t as important considering he’s on a cable network. You have to combine these with internet hits and how much time people spend on tbs.com and teamcoco.com as a result (same of course applies for Stewart). Straightforward ratings races are irrelevant these days IMO.

  Comment by Prax — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 2:13pm PST  Reply to this post

  • If that were true, Nellie and team would not be working tirelessly to deliver accurate ratings and demos. Ratings will always be at the epicenter of determining a show’s success, and, yes, internet hits and streaming are taken into consideration.

    Comment by Stan — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 2:37pm PST  Reply to this post

  • Both Conan and Stewart will be 50 within two years, so they’ll soon be in the age of the uncounted. Frankly, there really needs to be a host that isn’t pushing 50 if they want to get ratings in the 18-34 demo. All the late night cable hosts are over 40, except CH.

    Wow, Conan apologists are now saying even the accurate 18-34 and 18-49 ratings shouldn’t count, hits to websites should count more than ratings. Of course when they fall behind in that count they’ll insist that only iphone traffic should count.

    Comment by JD — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 3:15pm PST  Reply to this post

    • @JD – yeah, his name is Jimmy Fallon and he’s doing just fine with young people.

      Comment by Damien — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 4:39pm PST  Reply to this post

• For all the press they get, no one watches ANY of these shows.

  Comment by Jack Meyhoffer — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 2:16pm PST  Reply to this post

• Interesting to already hear the (unconvincing) spins on Conan’s ratings.

  Comment by Stan — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 2:18pm PST  Reply to this post

• Not a hater, in fact a Coco fan. Huge one.

  I am frightened, I have not enjoyed his show as of late, it is not even close to as fun as his late night was, and just as neutred as his Tonight Show was but with a smaller budget.

  If Conan is going to compete for his demo, he needs to bring back the edge. Andy behind the podium is holding him back. I loved him on the couch, but where he is now is just too stiff.

  Comment by Team SadSad — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 2:25pm PST  Reply to this post

  • Give him some time for christ’s sake! He’s doing great for a cable show, but like any new show, it’ll take a year or so for the ‘new car smell’ to wear off and they might not be so damn skittish to take it off road.

    Comment by Art — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 2:53pm PST  Reply to this post

    • Give him some time?! He’s been on for 17 years! How much more time does he need?!

      As to your comment that “He’s doing great for a cable show” well… THIS WHOLE STORY IS ABOUT HOW HE’S NOT DOING GREAT FOR A CABLE SHOW!!!

      Another cable show, on at the same time, which reaches less homes, is roundly beating him. He’s doing awfully for any show, not doing well for a cable show.

      Plus, as people keep pointing out, the advertisers were charged network rates, not cable rates, so the advertisers who pay the bill won’t care if he’s doing great for a cable show (which of course he’s not) they were promised network ratings and he’s doing worse than Lopez was in that time slot.

      Comment by Berniex — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 4:38pm PST  Reply to this post

    • Art, to extend your metaphor, the Conan show is a car wreck from a business standpoint. It’d be like if a customer (in this case, the advertisers) were charged for a Porsche and were expecting a Porsche but were delivered a Kia instead. And to make matters worse, their brand new Kia doesn’t even drive as well as their ’79 Datsun that they traded up from to get the Kia. And oh, someone better buy Conan an air freshener, because his car stinks!

      Comment by ericBigDesk — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 4:46pm PST  Reply to this post

• The reality is that it’s easier to rally around an online cause than to actually tune in every night for what is essentially another routine talk show.

  Comment by kevin — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 2:31pm PST  Reply to this post

  • totally agree

    Comment by Stan — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 2:38pm PST  Reply to this post

  • Absolutely true.

    Comment by SethJ — Tuesday February 1, 2011 @ 9:34am PST  Reply to this post

• The real news is that Conan is doing worse than Lopez was at 11 PM.

  This is stunning.

  I really like Conan but seems like he is heading toward cancelation. His show is not gonna make it to 2012 barring some sudden upturn.

  Comment by Team Humiliation — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 4:02pm PST  Reply to this post

• Why is someone a “HATER” if Conan’s numbers are compared to Leno’s and Letterman’s and…god forbid…Conan weren’t beating Leno/it’s determined Conan’s ratings are nothing special?

  At the end of the day, Conan has a fas base, they’ve found his show, they’re enjoying it. End of story. He never had what it would take to be the next Carson or the next Tonight Show legend in general. He’s found his niche. It’s not hate to acknowledge that.

  On a side note….why exactly does George Lopez still have a show? Clearly he’s not doing anything to attain noteworthy ratings.

  Although it’s not as frequent I want to see how Watch What Happens Live! measures up because I hear it handily beats all of the above.

  Comment by JJ — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 4:17pm PST  Reply to this post

• I just saw this part of the press release:

  Versus January 2010, “The Daily Show” is up 9 percent in Total Viewers (1.556 million vs. 1.422 million), while “Conan” is down 3 percent vs. the January 2010 performance of “Lopez Tonight” (1.153 million vs. 1.123 million).

  Conan doing worse than Lopez on a year to year comparison for an entire month!

  And Conan gets paid way more, right? This site said Conan getting paid 10 to 15 million plus ownership. What’s Lopez make, maybe a million or two a year?

  And didn’t I also read that TBS is charging advertisers network rates for Conan’s show? Yikes. Can you imagine how furious and disappointed the advertising community must be?

  TBS staked their whole reputation on this and it’s a bust. Can’t be long before that Koonin guy who runs TBS gets fired, right? KOONIN’S FOLLY.

  Here comes Conan big money buyout and cancellation Part Deux.

  Comment by Team Humiliation — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 4:24pm PST  Reply to this post

  • totally agree. my kids & partners (twentysomethings) used to love Conan at 12:30 wouldn’t miss a show, They didn’t like him on the Tonight Show, and gave him a try on tbs, and they say it’s awful. They all watch Jon & Steven.

    Comment by CHRIS — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 4:41pm PST  Reply to this post

• Part of the problem is fairly obvious: Conan’s show no longer has the same edge, drive, or energy that it did 10 or 15 years ago. If that version of the show had followed such a passionate, youth-oriented campaign to get Conan back on the air, we’d probably be looking at much higher ratings.

  I’m not trying to criticize Conan- having been a fan since the early 90s- but it’s simply not logical to expect someone pushing 50 to be the same as he was in his 30′s. However, I think that’s exactly what many longtime and newer, younger fans were expecting- especially after the whole “Team Coco” thing heralded Conan as cutting-edge to Leno’s tired comedy. In reality, both hosts had slowly shifted into their own comfortable, predictable style over the past decade.

  Comment by adam — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 7:23pm PST  Reply to this post

• Conan doesn’t work at 11 pm he needs to air at Midnight. TBS should put Lopez back at 11 and tell Conan they’re airing him at 12 and if he doesn’t like it they need to explain to him why it’s so. He can’t compete with Stewart and Colbert and he shouldn’t have to. The Lopez audience is vastly different from the political satire on Comedy Central. Conan would do much better at Midnight when his real competition is Kimmel.

  Comment by Network Guru — Monday January 31, 2011 @ 10:11pm PST  Reply to this post

• Network Guru: You funny.

  The guy who gave up his “dream” of hosting the Tonight Show when they wanted to push it to midnight is now going to let himself be further humiliated by going back to midnight on cable when he could have been at midnight and still hosting something called The Tonight Show?

  He simply would never do this.

  You need a new ashram or something Mr. Guru.

  Comment by tfranka — Tuesday February 1, 2011 @ 1:08am PST  Reply to this post

  • TBS will do it for him he won’t have any choice. Conan deserves to be humiliated he should have taken NBC’s offer to do the Tonight Show at Midnight. Because he refused to do that he deserves to be shuffled back an hour. His show isn’t working at 11 pm and he was much funnier when he went on at 12:35. Midnight will put him head to head with Kimmel and it’ll be the best horse race on TV it’ll be great competition they are equally funny and amusing.

    Comment by Network Guru — Tuesday February 1, 2011 @ 9:13pm PST  Reply to this post

    • NG:

      What will TBS do about 11 PM then? Move the Lopez show back to 11?

      I would be shocked if Conan doesn’t have a “time slot guarantee” in this deal saying that TBS has to air the show at 11.

      Also, I think this show is too expensive to air at midnight. Right now Lopez is only holding about one-third of Conan’s 11 PM audience. Even if Conan at midnight could get half of a Lopez at 11 PM’s audience to stick around it still wouldn’t be enough to make the show financially feasible.

      Plus, Conan will refuse to move, which will be his contractual right to do, and TBS will have to buy out his deal for 50 million or so, just like NBC did. Then Conan will keep 99 percent of it while giving his writers a pittance to go away quietly, just like he did when his Tonight Show was canceled.

      Either way, I think we are both in agreement that a year from now, conan will be hosting a reality or game show and the current TBS management will have been sacked.

      Comment by tfranka — Tuesday February 1, 2011 @ 9:42pm PST  Reply to this post

• I’m 25 and i only watch Late late show with Craig Ferguson and Colbert Report

  Comment by Ronald — Tuesday February 1, 2011 @ 3:16am PST  Reply to this post

• Someone once explained to me that the the late night numbers have extra importance to the networks because of the tendency of many viewers to leave their tv sets on that channel overnight, and turn it on again first thing in the morning while getting up – that these groggy half-asleep eyeballs are much more susceptible to advertising at this hour.
  Is this conventional wisdom? Or fallacy?

  Comment by Conventional Ignorance — Tuesday February 1, 2011 @ 10:55am PST  Reply to this post

• I missed some episodes of Conan because I had to go live my life, but I’m watching the show right now, and it’s great. Conan is perfectly in the groove, he has some funny new bits, and he’s flirting fine with Jennifer Aniston.

  The huge, huge, fundamental problem with the show is that the world seems to be falling completely to hell, and I think that what Conan really seems to be is a kind of Iron Man character who will put on an electronic exoskeleton and save the world.

  Jon Stewart has taken that responsibility seriously and is doing his darndest to fly over New York and fight bad guys. At this point, it looks as if Conan is just doing a talk show. Is that because of kryptonite? Because Conan is less serious than he seems? Or because Conan is so busy figuring out how to run for Senate in 2012 that he’s a little distracted? Probably, of course, B, but it’s comforting to think C.

  Comment by A spouse — Tuesday February 1, 2011 @ 10:35pm PST  Reply to this post

• With his weak numbers, Conan has put TBS in the financially untenable position of giving money back to the advertisers. They promised that his ratings would be competitive with network late night shows, and now he is losing even to the cable competition. His contract is up for renewal in 2012, an election year when Jon Stewart’s numbers will be even higher. I would expect them to quietly cancel Conan at that point.

  Comment by Alyssa — Thursday February 3, 2011 @ 5:43am PST  Reply to this post

• I can’t see what the big deal is about Conan. Where’s the comedy? This is guy with the HUGE head is NOT funny at all and is very boring. I hate all the promo ads as if that will get people to watch. I am surprised that anyone with a sense of humor is even watching this mess. His promo ads are not even funny, that should tell anyone not to waste time to watch this. Why don’t TBS do us all a favor and cancel this show. It’s a waste of TV time!

  Comment by NextLevel — Friday February 11, 2011 @ 3:33pm PST  Reply to this post