Press releases from ABC and CBS touting their late night numbers arrived within seconds of each other!
Here is CBS's:
"LATE SHOW" GOES BACK-TO-BACK WITH WINS OVER "THE Tonight Show" FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1998
"Late Show" Tops "Tonight Show" in Viewers for the Third Time in Four Weeks
The Gap in Both Adults 18-49 and Adults 18-34 Narrows to Their
Smallest Difference Since Conan Became Host
"The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" Tops "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon"
CBS's LATE SHOW with DAVID LETTERMAN topped "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" for the second consecutive week and third time in the past four first-run weeks, according to Nielsen live plus same day ratings for the week ending July 17.
LATE SHOW's consecutive viewer wins marks the first time the broadcast has topped "The Tonight Show" in successive weeks since February 1998 (during the Nagano Olympics).
In adults 18-49, LATE SHOW was just -0.2 of a rating point behind "The Tonight Show," while among adults 18-34, the gap has narrowed to -0.5 of a rating point, the smallest difference between the two shows in both demographic measures since Conan became host.
For the week, LATE SHOW with DAVID LETTERMAN delivered a 2.4/06 in households with an average of 3.45m viewers, up +14% in households (from 2.1/05) and +17% in viewers (from 2.95m) compared to the same week last year. LATE SHOW was up +10% in adults 25-54 (1.1/04 from 1.0/04), +14% in adults 18-49 (0.8/03 from 0.7/03) and even in adults 18-34 (0.5/02) compared to the same week last year. Note: Due to the primetime announcement of Walter Cronkite's passing, Friday's broadcast began at 11:43 PM.
THE LATE LATE SHOW with CRAIG FERGUSON beat "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" in households (1.1/04 vs. 1.0/03, +10%) and viewers (1.48m vs. 1.27m, +17%). THE LATE LATE SHOW topped "Late Night" by its largest margin in viewers since Fallon's March 2009 premiere with first-run broadcasts. In adults 25-54, the two programs were tied (0.6/03, each).
For the week, THE LATE LATE SHOW with CRAIG FERGUSON posted a 1.1/04 in households with 1.48m viewers, up +8% in viewers (from 1.37m) and even in households compared to the same week last year. THE LATE LATE SHOW was up +20% in adults 25-54 (0.6/03 from 0.5/03), and even in both adults 18-49 (0.4/02) and adults 18-34 (0.3/02) compared to the same week last year. Note: Due to the primetime announcement of Walter Cronkite's passing, Friday's broadcast began at 12:45AM.
Wow, the demo gap is shrinking considerably – I’m surprised!
Granted, I believe this was the week where Paul McCartney appeared on the show (which likely inflated the demo #) — but Conan’s weekly ratings are the lowest in 18 years I believe? Yikes.
Although the decision was made 5 years ago, I find it mind-blowing how NBC can remove a guaranteed ratings and money-maker in Leno, and fix something that isn’t broken! Granted it’s still early in the Dave vs. Conan battle, plus it’s the summer, but a disasterous start for Conan & NBC.
Another observation, yes, Dave had Sir Paul on last Friday, but he has consistently had better, “A” list guests than Conan. What happened?
How did Ferguson and Fallon drop off so much in total viewers? The Late Late Show and Late Night usually hover around 1.6-1.7 million viewers in the summer with new episodes.
Yeah Conan’s guests are awful – I don’t even think many people like/know most of them! What’s up with that??
I’ve been a huge Conan fan for many, many years and I too can’t figure out what’s going on with his show. They’re trying to put a square peg into the round hole that is 11:35. Conan isn’t as funny, his skits aren’t as funny, the guests are somehow even worse than when he was AFTER Leno (I’m afraid to see the quality of guests once Leno returns earlier in the evening), and Andy Richter has fallen flat.
I wanted SO much to love the new Tonight Show, but it really has fallen off dramatically and the ratings reflect that.
Conan never should have been put on 11:30 in the first place. He’s competing directly with Colbert now, and their shows had pretty much the same audience before – hence that crossover with Conan, the Tonight Show, and the Colbert Report during the writers’ strike. Now Conan and Colbert are splitting the same group.
The trouble with Conan is the pressure to “do Leno” more, and the show is the least funny when he’s doing the mandatory Leno stuff people have come to expect from The Tonight Show. When he’s doing his own thing, it’s frakkin’ hilarious. There’s been a noticeably sharp turn towards that in particular in the past few weeks – it’s as if he was told to try and emulate Leno as much as possible to keep the viewers who prefer him, but it’s almost visible on screen that he’s not thrilled. Now he’s not only not winning those people back, he’s losing the core audience (people like me).
Colbert can’t be blamed for Conan’s falling numbers. Colbert was in reruns last week, getting a little over half his normal number of viewers, and Conan still lost, getting about the same amount of viewers as he did this week. Not to mention, Colbert has been a frequent guest on Letterman.
Wait, what Leno stuff has Conan done?
Can we get the 25-54 demo numbers?
The ABC press release that Bill posted has 25-54 demo numbers for the big three late night shows. To copy from that:
ABC “Nightline” 1,473,000/ 1.2
CBS “Late Show” 1,326,000/ 1.1
NBC “Tonight” 1,466,000/ 1.2
I find it interesting that the Late Late Show continues to increase in viewers and beat Jimmy Fallon this week in spite of the fact CBS refuses to promote the show. I guess maybe CBS doesn’t need to do press releases pronouncing Craig is the ‘King of Late Night’ after all.
I don’t know what anyone sees in Conan, he just isn’t funny, period. I have to say I never much liked CRAIG FERGUSON but I have been finding him funny lately. His opening monologue is different and amusing. He seems very relaxed in his own skin. I only watched because the TV was still on after Letterman but I find myself actually enjoying his show.
thanks guys….
I thought Letterman would win that..
he must have a huge audience relatively speaking ages 60+
Why did NBC think that Conan would do better than Jay in 18-49 viewers,again?
Chris, I guess he must, which is kind of funny when you consider that he was once thought to be “too hip” for 11:30. I haven’t seen the Late Show’s ads shift to products that try to sell to older crowds though, although I’ve definitely seen it with the Late Late Show.
Michael, it made a lot of sense really, I don’t think anyone questioned whether Conan could do better in the younger demos. In fact, the concern was mostly “how will he play with The Tonight Show’s older viewers”. I mean hell, his final episode of Late Night got a 1.4 in 18-49. Not to mention, back when NBC decided Conan would take over The Tonight Show, he was up against Craig Kilborn, who he supposedly beat to a bloody pulp on a nightly basis (I don’t have numbers for that, just articles speculating that Kilborn’s horrible ratings losses might have been why he retired).
The speculation that NBC kept Leno under contract in the event that Conan tanked is looking more credible now. Hard to believe the magnitude of this disaster, but it’s really a career-ender.
I wouldn’t call this a “disaster” at this point (yet)
But my concern is – once Leno actually makes his DEBUT, will Conan see even FURTHER erosion?
That’s blowing it out of proportion Josh. At worst, The Tonight Show and the Late Show have switched numbers (just below 3 million viewers is typical for the Late Show in the summer), except The Tonight Show is still winning the younger demos by a little. In my opinion, for this to be bad enough to be called a disaster (which is a very strong word), he’d have to fall below all the other shows in the younger demos, and still sit below 3 million total viewers once summer is over. Otherwise it’s not a disaster, he’s just losing (which David Letterman did for 13 years while CBS continued to pay him over twenty million a year).
Plus, overall I’m starting to see just how smart a move this was in the long-run. They’ve pre-empted Letterman retiring this way. Leno and Letterman are both getting up there in age, so by forcing Leno to give up The Tonight Show before Letterman could give up the Late Show, NBC has ensured that they’re still the incumbent once Dave retires. Had Dave retired first, whoever replaced him would have gotten a good three year head-start on Conan; but now when Letterman retires, Conan will have become comfortable as host of The Tonight Show and will be the one people turn to after Dave’s replacement’s shaky start.
why is Conan doing so badly? Do that many people not like him or his show? I’ve been a long time fan and admit that his current show is not as good as the old one, but I still think he’s doing pretty well on the Tonight Show. I think that the more confident he gets in his new surroundings the show will only improve.
Could it be people simply aren’t comfortable with him yet? It usually takes viewers awhile to get comfortable with watching a single host night after night. It took Leno at least 3 years. And to be honest, I never liked Leno’s show at all but I could see why people would be comfortable with him.