It was a good first week back for Jay Leno. For the week ending March 5, The Tonight Show dominated in adults 18-49 and total viewers, outranking Late Show with David Letterman and ABC’s combination of Nightline and Jimmy Kimmel Live, according to final ratings released by NBC. For the week, Leno averaged 1.94 million adults in the 18-49 demo and 5.58 million total viewers; Letterman, in comparison, averaged 1.30 million adults and 3.66 million total viewers. Leno also outranked Letterman among adults 18-34.
Leno also gave a big boost to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which also out-delivered CBS’ Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Fallon attracted 916,000 adults in the 18-49 demo versus for 754,000 for Ferguson. He also beat his CBS rival in total viewers (1.949 million versus 1.802 million).
Before Leno’s return, Letterman was consistently dominating the 11:30 p.m. timeslot in viewers and occasionally among adults 18-49. Leno is already well ahead of what he was doing last season on The Tonight Show; he was averaging 5.1 million viewers before he left the franchise. Once Conan O’Brien took over in the fourth quarter, the show averaged 2.5 million.
blah blah blah his ratings are better because he doesn’t have himself as a lead-in blah blah blah coco was shafted blah blah blah
Anybody who continues to watch this @$$hole has serious problems.
Exactly. Jay Leno just needs to retire his tired *ss.
yeah, dude with the #1 show that beats his rivals’ combined ratings… what’s he thinking?? give up, leno, you loser!
Enough with the personal assaults on Leno viewers. I like Jay Leno. I am not alone. Get off it.
Anyone who ever watched Conan the Cretin has serious problems.
KC: No one is watching YOU!
people just tuned in to see what the d bag would say. he’s finished.
his 76 year old viewers will have to find some another source of warm puddin’ before bedtime….
Exactly!
Leno is the hackiest comedian on the planet. Entertainment for morons.
enjoy it while it lasts. because nbc has ZERO succeession plan for leno unless he plans on hosting until he’s 80.
Hater!
Leno’s going to have trouble hearing your scathing critique of his efforts as he is waaay out front of his competition – and apparently – you!
Snipe all you want – it’s a business people – and you cannot argue with success.
As for Conan – this whole dust up will be the best career boost he could have ever imagined. In 5 years he’ll be thanking NBC for allowing him to walk….with 40 million!
LENO IS MUCH BETTER THEN THE UNFUNNY RED HED GUY, INFACT I THINK HE JUST GOT THE JOB BECUASE OF HIS HAIR.THERE IS NO WAY NBC WOULD BE STUPID ENOUGH TO PUT THAT RED HEAD LOSER ON THE FAMED TONIGHT SHOW.
Well, it’s too early to tell if Leno will still maintain his ratings lead since this is his first week back. Plus it’s the week after the Olympics airing, so it’s not surprising Leno got good ratings. However, if you look at the ratings of his 10 pm show, it got very high ratings in its first week but then it got lower and lower in the succeeding weeks until it affected Conan’s show. So expect the same thing to happen here.
So much for younger viewers preferring Conan and Dave!
I don’t know if you can say that… The demo given covers a 30 year span and the rest of Leno’s audience is pretty top heavy equaling Letterman’s total. This only proves that Nursing Homes prefer Leno over CoCo.
40 somethings are young?
Honestly, I’m a fan of both Coco and Jay, so I’m happy for him. Actually going to a live taping soon. I also bought tickets for Conan’s new tour so do that too!
maiv:
You are such a tool
Naw, I’m not a tool or a troll like you.
America is officially the land of the stupid.
Agreed. Between this and all of the dolts making the epitome of mediocrity, the Twilight saga, hits are making this a sad country we live in.
Don’t forget to include its terrible taste in music from the high ratings of American Idol.
the masses are *sses. why else would leno be #1? he hasn’t been funny in 20 years.
Numbers mean nothing. Just ask Toyota.
I’d like to see a quantification of the show’s quality.
or a quantification of originality.
Leno — ZERO %
Dave — BAZILLION %
Unfortunately, when it comes to networks running a business numbers mean EVERYTHING because that means $$$! Doesn’t mean Jay on the Tonight Show is a good thing. What they should’ve tried first is having higher quality lead ins for the Tonight Show with Conan instead of Jay’s 1 hour of crap. If that failed then they could have given the show back to Jay. Instead they lost $40 million and their reputation sunk even further.
But does it? If Leno is getting 50% more ratings than Dave does that also mean that the ads for the Tonight Show also cost 50% more? I can understand a show in the tens of millions charging alot for ad space like American Idol but is 5 million really that much better than 3 million? It seems the whole thing is nothing more than bragging rights than business sense.
Hey CoCo viewers – can you hear us now? LOL
No. But we can read your very insightful comment. Enjoy your Rome, EJ, while it lasts.
Its a sad day when its proven that the majority of tv watching Americans prefer regurgitated, bland, lowest-common-denominator level comedy to smart, well written programming. This isn’t the first time either. Remember 2 1/2 men is the #1 comedy. But would anyone suggest that it is today’s BEST sitcom?
It’s the “in” thing to be on team coco. Just a bunch of bandwagoners, who probably never watched Conan once when he was on latenight.
Um…i watched every episode of the tonight show that had Conan as its host. I don’t have a Nielsen box, so my ratings don’t count. And if I missed any during the week, i Hulu’d it. The people with the Nielsen boxes are all old, watch Leno, NCIS, and 2 & 1/2 Men religiously. Which is why smart, new programming does so poorly.
No, much like Monty commented above, we watched every single episode of the “Tonight Show” when Conan hosted. Some of the posters here who dislike Conan sure do appear to enjoy making uninformed assumptions about his fanbase for some reason.
I watched Late Night w/Conan from the very first epiode in 93. You know, right after Jay screwed over Dave.
Oh GET OVER it already!!!!!!!!
And, the people who hate on Leno sure do like to make assumptions about his fanbase for some reason.
Yeah, that was the first week. Let’s just say his second week isn’t going nearly as well. Heehee.
Yea. HeeHee. Conan’s week is far superior.
This news really bummed me out.
Most people work hard – then settle in with something they are familiar with is all – people are familiar with him and have settled in – they like eccentric only once in awhile – and the people who like eccentric a lot are watching HBO or late nite Cinemax – hubba hubba
Breaking news: Americans like garbage… immediately rush out to pre-order copies of Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakel on dvd and set their TV reminders for Monday’s 2 and a Half Men… all while sipping on their Brawndo.
Exactly.
I’m an American and I agree!
It’s got electrolytes!
I read that Fallon did not lead Ferguson later in the week.
He did well in the ratings because he wasn’t his own lead-in from 10 PM.
There are two different arguments occurring on the boards related to Jay, Dave, and Conan. One is about who gets the most viewers. The other is about who is the best, funniest, most original. RE: #1 – Jay gets the most viewers. Hands down. Can’t argue with the numbers. RE: #2 – Dave and Conan are funnier. No contest. End of discussion.
hahahaha “No contest. End of discussion.” Thank you, Lord, for the Gospel reading.
Leno’s show received the Sarah Palin stamp of approval. That’s pretty much all you need to know right there about the show’s intelligence level.
so now sara palin is stupid?she was almost our VP…you are the smart one steve x ……..what you do for a living?
Tony, come on. You’re kidding, right?