For the week of June 29 - July 5 in the late night battle, it wasn't so much Conan vs. Dave as it was Michael Jackson vs. everybody else as Nightline swept the competition in adults 18-49 (edging Conan in viewers, but tieing in rating), 25-54 and average viewers.
As I've written several times, I'd completely discount these Jackson frenzy weeks in terms of future predictions. However, it's not clear when the frenzy's going to slow down.
Update: Commenters have noted that both the Tonight Show and Late Night were in repeats for the week. Considering that, it's relative results are impressive vs. Nightline, particularly with the Jackson frenzy.
If/When I see adults 18-34 numbers, I will update the post.
| Program | Net | Adults 18-49 (million) | Adults 18-49 rating | Adults 25-54 (million) | Adults 25-54 rating | Viewers (million) |
| Nightline | ABC | 1.32 | 1.0 | 1.59 | 1.3 | 4.02 |
| Tonight Show | NBC | 1.29 | 1.0 | 1.27 | 1.0 | 2.42 |
| Late Show | CBS | 1.10 | 0.8 | 1.53 | 1.2 | 3.58 |
All numbers Live+SD
Compiled from press releases.
Only 2.42 million for the Tonight Show? That’s got to be a new record low, is it not?
Not good news that Dave was so close to Conan in 18-49 and beat up on Conan in 25-54.
Spungo, our access to historical, particularly “lowest” and “highest”, numbers for late night shows is almost non-existent, sadly.
That’s a very low number, but it’s summer and neither Conan nor Dave was able to turn his entire show over to Jacksonia as was Nightline, so I wouldnt read too much into it.
To be fair, Conan was in repeats for this ratings week.
Tonight Show was reruns.
Thanks for the heads up. I will edit the post.
Letterman was in repeats last week too.
Yup, both were in repeats I believe, so it was a “fair fight”.
To be fair to Conan, it looks like more of his fans flocked to Nightline, while most of Dave’s stayed with him.
Re: The Tonight Show’s 2.42 average, there’s no way Johnny ever had an average so low and you would probably have to go back to 1994 or 1995 to find a comparable Leno average.
Frankly, given the Jacko coverage and Nightline running all new shows and the Late Show being in repeats, I actually think Dave has the most to crow about last week. It is also clear that the time of people sampling Conan may be over. Whatever his core audience may be, it has no use for repeats and few if any fresh faces showed up to watch him last week.
Any news on what has happened so far this week?
Jim, I think things have cooled down to the point that we won’t be seeing daily numbers in the press, just weekly updates via press releases. That will likely change once Jay begins at 10pm in mid-September.
Weird that Dave would maintain his viewers in reruns against the Michael Jackson frenzy while Conan would lose so many viewers (especially young ones) to it. Anyway, I didn’t realize this before, but Michael Jackson’s viewing was this week, so this week’s ratings are no good either. We’ll probably have to wait two weeks until we get next week’s ratings to see where Dave and Conan stand. Strangely, both Dave and Conan seem kind of out of it this week anyway.
you wish, Bill! Here’s an article from Media Decoder with lots of numbers from this week’s late night wars that was written hours before your comment:
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/nightline-soars-with-jackson-coverage-a-tough-week-for-conan/
Late Night news never stops! I should have known not to stop reading Media Decoder months ago!
Wow, Conan’s numbers this week, with new shows, are atrocious. It looks more and more that the late night supremacy will be decided on a night to night basis depending on who has which guest or what news is driving Nightline’s coverage. It does certainly look as though NBC would have been better off standing pat with Jay and Conan, although we won’t know for sure until after the November sweeps.
If that NY Times article is to be believed, Dave actually improved week-to-week last week (3.6 million to 3.5 million) despite being in repeats. How the hell does that happen?
Andrew,
Not too surprising if it is true. Probably more people were watching TV last week for obvious reasons, and many tuned in for Letterman at late night. This doesn’t apply to Conan though, as his viewers dropped a lot.
David Letterman is a acquires taste but this is his moment. NBC should have stuck with Jay I suppose. For my taste, DAVE is the late night king and Nighline is an excellent alternative if you do not have cable. There is room for everyone. That was not true so many years ago.
thrilled dave is doing so well, hope craig can have similar success. CBS Late Night Comedy is the best, period
Conan will prevail!
In addition to being in repeats, The Tonight show was delayed for 20 minutes for Wimbledon coverage that week.