via NBC press release:
Conan TAKES WEEK TWO IN EVERY KEY RATINGS CATEGORY
'THE Tonight Show WITH Conan O'BRIEN' DOMINATES ITS SECOND WEEK OVER 'LATE SHOW' IN EVERY IMPORTANT DEMO – ADULTS, MEN AND WOMEN 18-34, 18-49 AND 25-54 – ALSO CLAIMS THE WEEK IN TOTAL VIEWERS
Conan WINS THE WEEK BY 79 PERCENT IN 18-49 VIEWERS, 'TONIGHT'S' BIGGEST MARGIN AGAINST A FULL WEEK OF 'LATE SHOW' ORIGINALS, EXCLUDING Conan'S PREMIERE WEEK, SINCE THE 'FRIENDS' FINALE
Conan'S MARGIN SOARS TO 177 PERCENT IN ADULTS 18-34
JIMMY FALLON OUT-DELIVERS LETTERMAN IN 18-49 VIEWERS BY 1 PERCENT AND IN 18-34 VIEWERS BY 61 PERCENT, DESPITE STARTING AN HOUR LATER THAN LETTERMAN
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – June 18, 2009 – "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" has delivered a convincing victory in its second week on the air, with dominant wins in every important demographic – adults, men and women 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 – plus a victory in total viewers.
Conan won the week over all cable and broadcast entertainment competition, beating his closest rival, CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman," by a 79 percent margin in adult 18-49 viewers, despite the controversy involving Gov. Sarah Palin that has boosted interest in "Late Show," and a lineup of prominent "Late Show" guests last week that included Howard Stern and Julia Roberts. The 79 percent advantage is "Tonight's" most dominant win over a full week of "Late Show" originals, excluding Conan's premiere week, in five years (since the week of the "Friends" finale, May 3-7, 2004).
Conan's lead last week soared to 177 percent in the younger half of the target 18-49 demographic, adults 18-34 (1.040 million adults 18-34 vs. 376,000). In men 18-34, the margin was 245 percent (545,000 vs. 158,000). The median age of Conan's audience last week was 45.7, 11 years younger than Letterman's 56.7.
"Conan continues to out-perform our most optimistic expectations," said Rick Ludwin, Executive Vice President, Late Night and Primetime Series, NBC Entertainment. "This business is all about delivering the key demographic groups, and for Conan to dominate every important demographic through his first two weeks is a real ratings home run."
Conan has won 10 of 10 nights to date over "Late Show" in adults 18-49 and virtually every other important demographic. Conan has also led every significant demo for the first two nights of the current week, including June 15, the night of David Letterman's second apology to Gov. Palin, according to Nielsen's fast national ratings.
NBC's demographic dominance last week extended to 12:35 a.m. ET, where "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" not only beat CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" in all key categories, but out-delivered Letterman by 1 percent in adult 18-49 viewers (1.141 million adults 18-49 vs. 1.126 million) and by 61 percent in adult 18-34 viewers (606,000 vs. 376,000), despite Jimmy's later start time. In 18-49 rating, Jimmy tied Dave on five of five nights last week.
In its two weeks following "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien," "Late Night" has won over "Late Late Show" by an average of 77 percent in adult 18-49 viewers, up from a 46 percent margin of victory for Jimmy Fallon earlier this season.
For the week of June 8-12, Conan's average 2.013 million adults 18-49 topped the 1.126 million of Letterman; in total viewers, Conan's audience of 3.771 million persons beat Letterman's 3.669 million; and in adults 18-34, Conan's 1.040 million out-scored Letterman's 376,000. At 12:35 a.m. ET, Jimmy Fallon's 1.141 million adults 18-49 for the week out-delivered Ferguson's 665,000; in total viewers, Jimmy's 1.944 million beat Ferguson's 1.720 million; and in adults 18-34, Jimmy's 606,000 topped Ferguson's 247,000.
WEEKLY AVERAGES
(According to in-home viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research for the week of June 8-12. Ratings reflect "live plus same day" data unless otherwise noted. Season-to-date figures are averages of "live plus seven day" data except for the two most recent weeks, which are "live plus same day.")ADULTS 18-49
11:35 p.m. ET
NBC "Tonight," 1.5 rating, 6 share
CBS "Late Show," 0.9/3
ABC "Nightline," 1.0/412:05 a.m. ET
ABC "Kimmel," 0.6/3*12:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Late Night," 0.9/5
CBS "Late Late Show," 0.5/31:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Last Call," 0.5/3*TOTAL VIEWERS
11:35 p.m. ET
NBC "Tonight," 3.8 million viewers
CBS "Late Show," 3.7 million viewers
ABC "Nightline," 3.4 million viewers12:05 a.m. ET
ABC "Kimmel," 1.7 million viewers*12:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Late Night," 1.9 million viewers
CBS "Late Late Show," 1.7 million viewers*1:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Last Call," 1.0 million viewers** Monday's "Last Call" and the Monday and Wednesday "Kimmel" telecasts were encores.
SEASON TO DATE
ADULTS 18-49
11:35 p.m. ET
NBC "Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien," 2.0/8
CBS "Late Show," 1.1/4
ABC "Nightline," 1.1/412:05 a.m. ET
ABC "Kimmel," 0.6/312:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," 0.8/5
CBS "Late Late Show," 0.6/31:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Last Call," 0.5/3TOTAL VIEWERS
11:35 p.m. ET
NBC "Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien," 5.0 million viewers
CBS "Late Show," 3.8 million viewers
ABC "Nightline," 3.8 million viewers12:05 a.m. ET
ABC "Kimmel," 1.7 million viewers12:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," 2.1 million viewers
CBS "Late Late Show," 1.9 million viewers1:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Last Call," 1.2 million viewersSELECTED CABLE RESULTS, WEEK OF JUNE 8-12
NATIONAL ADULT 18-49 RATING
Comedy Central, 11 p.m. ET, "The Daily Show," 0.7
Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m. ET, "The Colbert Report," 0.7Adult Swim, 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET, 0.8
Adult Swim, 12:30-1:30 a.m. ET, 0.5Each adult 18-49 rating point equals 1.32 million viewers
TOTAL VIEWERS
Comedy Central, 11 p.m. ET, "The Daily Show," 1.6 million
Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m. ET, "The Colbert Report," 1.4 millionAdult Swim, 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET, 2.0 million
Adult Swim, 12:30-1:30 a.m. ET, 1.2 million
It does not matter if Conan beat Letterman in key demos, Letterman beat Conan in Total Viewers so far this WEEK, and total viewers is what matters!!!
“total viewers is what matters!!!”
To whom?
Juan, perhaps that’s all that matters to YOU. But when it comes to making money (which we’re pretty sure matters more to the networks), it just isn’t so. The only thing that matters are the demos and total viewers don’t matter at all.
Even in the week above, all three shows (Tonight, Late Show and Nightline) averaged roughly the same number of total viewers.
Ron, to the writers of press releases and wishful fans! Of course!
Anyway, YAY for Conan! He’s so much funnier than that horny old bastard Letterman. I hope he can hold on to the great ratings.
speaking of CBS press releases, here’s the CBS spin:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/06/18/cbss-late-show-in-closest-competitive-position-to-the-tonight-show-since-december-2005/
It’s a bit hyperbolic to say that total viewers don’t matter “at all”. And even if total viewers isn’t as important as demos, winning in total viewers would be something of a personal victory to Letterman. You know he has to want to be ahead in SOMETHING after playing second-fiddle to Leno (the guy who got the job he wanted) for so many years.
TSA, fair enough as to the CBS spinmeisters. I don’t know if Dave really cares that much or not after years of being #2, but it would be hard to imagine he doesn’t care a little.
As for total numbers not mattering at all, it’s true that is something of an overstatement. But in a hypothetical where one show averaged 5 million viewers who are all over 50 and one show averages 2.5 million where half of the viewers are under 50, the show with 2.5 million is still probably going to have the higher ad revenue.
Do we know yet how Conan and Dave did last night? Even though Dave beat him by a 700,000 total viewers on Monday and by 100,000 viewers on Tuesday, I’m predicting a strong comeback in numbers for Conan last night- he had Kobe Bryant on as a guest.
KT8711, no, I haven’t seen anything yet. Check Hibberd’s site, thrfeed.com (he has been regularly posting them). So far he doesn’t have any info on last night, but he does point out w/regard to the info above that it was The Tonight’s Shows fewest viewers since 1995.
Thanks for the info.
I missed it earlier, but that’s a huge win for Jimmy Fallon in the demos. To beat out Letterman, even when he airs in a later time slot?
I’m really interested to see how Conan does when he has Leno as a lead-in again in September. It may give NBC an edge over CBS. Leno could potentially bring in the high numbers of total viewers again, and even provide a boost to Conan in that area, provided viewers don’t tune out right after Leno.
How does Conan’s demo compare to the average Leno demo?
‘As for total numbers not mattering at all, it’s true that is something of an overstatement. But in a hypothetical where one show averaged 5 million viewers who are all over 50 and one show averages 2.5 million where half of the viewers are under 50, the show with 2.5 million is still probably going to have the higher ad revenue.’
What is the ratio regarding demos? Like would 1 person in the demo equal 4 that are over 50?
Petrie, there’s no fair way to do the comparison unless you go back and look at Leno this time last year. But early last fall Leno was in the 1.3-1.5 range.
As for figuring out the ratios. Figure there are roughly 132 million 18-49 year olds. It won’t be precise because of rounding, but if you see an 18-49 demo rating of 1.5, that means ~ 1.5% of ~132 million or roughly 1.98 million out of 3.8 million, so a little more than half, in the Conan example for the week above.
I’ll be honest and admit that I haven’t watched Conan yet in his role as Tonight Show host. But what I do know from years of watching Letterman is that he just isn’t funny (whether that blame is his or his writers I don’t no) – and between he and Paul, the “they’re getting weirder” factor has increased every year.
Letterman’s jokes mostly bomb – and then the only way he gets laughs is by making silly faces (i.e., part of the “weirder” factor) which solicit laughter probably only with the help of a lighted up “Laugh” sign or something similar. Honestly, sometimes it’s just plain painful to watch him anymore.
I don’t want to sound like an old fuddy duddy (because I’m only 45), but none of these guys hold a candle to Johnny Carson. Johnny could do it all – the monologues – QUALITY interviews no matter WHO the interviewee was – hilarious skits, etc. It’s been what – 15 years? – since Johnny’s departure. Honestly, watch old episodes of Carson and then watch ANY of these guys – there’s no comparison.
And you can’t use the arguement that “it was a different era.” In the late night talk show genre, it’s either entertaining or it’s not, whether it was on the air 20 years ago or last night. I just find it hard to believe that in all this time there isn’t SOMEONE who has come along that would be even a close comparison to Carson. Perhaps Jon Stewart, if he could also do the kind of sketch comedy that Carson could pull off.
Eventually, I’ll get around to watching Conan and see how he’s doing. Kimmel is funny enough (if a little lacking in interviewing skills) – but Letterman is just plain unbearable anymore.
Rick,
I know it may seem like I can’t possibly know what I’m talking about because I’m in my 20s, but I watched Carson when I was a very little kid, and then later watched the tons of old taped Carson shows my parents had, and clips of him on YouTube. I agree with you, nobody did it as good as Johnny. I can watch clips of him from decades ago, and still laugh my butt off.
If you asked me a few years ago, I would have said that Letterman came a very close second to Carson as late night TV talk show hosts go. But I have really changed my opinion on Letterman in recent years. I feel like he has become very crotchety and hard to watch. He used to do comedy bits that were kind of “out there” and would be energetic about them, like “Will it Float?”… I used to enjoy him immensely. I feel like lately, he’s just become rather boring to watch and seems like he’s phoning it in. I used to always watch Letterman over Leno, but in the last few years, I stopped watching the 11:30 shows all together. Until this month, I would just switch back and forth between Conan and Craig Ferguson at 12:30.
I’m going to warn you- Conan seems to be a polarizing host. You either love him or hate him. I personally think he brings a fresh energy to 11:30… other people think he’s obnoxious. He does a lot more produced comedy bits and sketches than Letterman does, and his humor is much more visual.
CBS takes in the most ad revenue, so I guess the total audience matters to them.
Mike, CBS as a whole in prime time takes in the most advertising based on estimates we saw. But that has nothing to do with late night programming at 11:30p. Though if you have any data on that, please feel free to share it or link to it.
Mike, CBS made the most advertising money because they have the most age demo group viewers over the longest period of prime-time (22 hours/week). Their total viewer average is meaningless to their advertising revenue.
Fox actually made more advertising money/primetime hour this past season, but because they have only 15 hours of primetime, they didn’t top CBS’s total.
As long as Dave is still in charge of 11:30 to 12:30, CBS will never win the key demos, I think.
One thing I have observed in the past few weeks (and I believe most of you also noticed) is ABC is picking up a lot of new viewers, especially Kimmel’s show. They are the biggest winner because of Jay’s departure from late night.
I will be interested to read their spin sometime