ABC spins last week's late night numbers. See the other networks spin here.
via press release:
For the Week of July 6, 2009
Nightline” IS #1 THREE WEEKS IN A ROW AMONG
TOTAL VIEWERS—FIRST TIME SINCE 1996
“Nightline” GROWS 11% AMONG TOTAL VIEWERS YEAR TO YEAR
For the third consecutive week ABC News’ “Nightline” was #1 among Total Viewers, outperforming NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” and CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman,” according to Nielsen Media Research for the week of July 6, 2009. This marks the first time since 1996 “Nightline” has placed first for three weeks in a row. Also for the week “Nightline” beat “Conan” and “Letterman” among Adults 25-54. NBC’s “The Tonight Show” experienced the program’s lowest Total Viewer and A25-54 averages since at least the 1991/ 1992 season.
“Nightline” continues to experience growth season and quarter to date, and year to year. Averaging 3.77 million Total Viewers for the week, “Nightline” grew +11% versus the same week last year as, “Tonight” declined -38%.
Versus the same time periods a year ago, an election year, “Nightline” is up +13% among Total Viewers, +2% among Adults 25-54 and +5% among Adults 18-49 season to date. Quarter to date, the program has grown +17% among Total Viewers and +2% among Adults 18-49.
Topics covered on last week’s “Nightline” included: the memorial service of Michael Jackson, Gov. Sarah Palin’s sudden resignation, the murder of pro-football player Steve McNair, an investigation into how banks are benefitting from hidden overdraft fees, and a report from the front lines in Afghanistan.
ABC News’ “Nightline” is anchored by Cynthia McFadden, Terry Moran and Martin Bashir. John Donvan and Vicki Mabrey are correspondents. James Goldston is the executive producer. The program airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m., ET on the ABC Television Network.
(Week of July 6, 2009)
TOTAL VIEWERS A25-54(000)/ Rtg A18-49(000)/ Rtg
ABC “Nightline” 3,770,000 1,570,000/ 1.3 1,310,000/ 1.0
CBS “Late Show” 3,680,000 1,450,000/ 1.2 1,110,000/ .8
NBC “Tonight” 2,820,000 1,500,000/ 1.2 1,440,000/ 1.1
Source: NTI
Why aren’t people warming up to Conan? Is it possible that he will be let go? Or will he be given a chance to improve his numbers?
I really don’t understand why people aren’t watching Conan. If it’s because they got their image of him from his previous show, I’d like to let them know that he’s a lot better than that. I couldn’t stand him on his old show and yet, surprisingly, love him on The Tonight Show. I was very sad when Jay left, but now I’m glad because Conan’s better.
NBC please give him time: if you remember, it took a long time for Jay to pick up an audience; he was slammed by Letterman over and over again for quite awhile before people warmed up to him. I can’t imagine the same thing not happening with Conan since he’s funnier and better than Leno.
People, WAKE UP! Watch Conan! He rocks!
And, btw, I’m 41.
Conan is terrible. Dave and Jay are better, even Kimmel is better than Conan. When Jay starts in the fall at 10 then we will see how bad Conan is when he can’t get the audience back after a big lead in to the local news. Conan is not appealing at all.
Conan’s in no danger of being let go. NBC is going to give him time.
This is just my opinion, but I personally think Conan’s hit a few speed bumps in his transition to The Tonight Show, and that his old show was better. First, his stage is just way too big. Late Night with Conan O’Brien’ studio used to be home for David Letterman’s show. When he moved to CBS, one of the complaints was that his larger stage took away a lot of the intimacy. So NBC refused to learn from this and gave Conan an even bigger stage. He seems a lot less able to interact with the audience now that it’s so huge, and there’s way too much distance between Conan and Andy when Conan’s at his desk. This is even worse when you consider that for Jay Leno’s Tonight Show, they moved part of the audience out of the stands to seats right in front of the stage to make his show more intimate and give the feeling of a comedy club. So the old Tonight Show audience is used to a much more intimate show than the one Conan is giving them.
More than that, Conan still doesn’t seem totally comfortable on The Tonight Show. I suspect his producers and NBC executives might be putting pressure on him, because a lot of times he seems like he’s trying to impress his new audience by not playing along with some of his crazier guests as much as he used to (see: Howie Mandel). Eventually he’ll probably be able to relax more and cut loose, but that looks like a pretty long way off.