Leno pulled a much better 18-49 demo than Conan is, and Letterman is edging closer and closer to Conan in 18-49 every week.

“Funny how those posting seem to take sides.”

Says the poster who proceeds to take Leno’s side against Conan, and Ferguson’s side against Fallon.

And you know, I’m not sure you can blame bad guests in this day and age. You can definitely blame a loss in the ratings to your competition having a really good guest, but you can’t blame it on your own show having bad guests, in my opinion. As Jay Leno himself once told Fallon, the viewers are tuning in much more for the host than the guests.

http://tvbythenumbers.com/category/ratings/late-night

It says there that Nightline is doing better than the Late Show.

Or did I read it wrong.

What do you think?

Craig Ferguson is easily the best talk show host on TV right now. The actual guests don’t matter as he’s funny regardless. His monologue is always hilarious. Unlike the other shows, Craig’s monologue doesn’t feel stiff and pre-planned. He actually seems like he is ad-libbing and it generates more spontaneity. His monologue can be about the most inconsequential things (like the movie G-Force) and yet is still far funnier than anything Dave or Conan have to offer.

It’s not just the host, either, but the entire production. The Late Show is really putting some special shows together. The Batting Stance Guy clip is all over the place, and the Paul McCartney show was truly magical TV.

Conan has been plain disappointing. He had 5 years to plan this. Remember, Dave made the same transition to 11:35 in 1993, and he did a much smoother job with it than Conan has.

That brings me to another issue. NBC needs to put an end to Max disappearing whenever he wants…it’s a distraction. Yes, I know Max has a long history with Springsteen, but this is ridiculous.

One last thing that applies to ALL late night hosts. The second they start pimping their own Twitter, Facebook, or Myspace pages is when I really start disliking them.

To me, it seems really desperate or insecure…like a kid in the 5th grade who would do anything just to be your friend. Bby the way, I’m not an old fart either. I’m 26 with plenty of friends who are addicted to Twitter/Facebook/Myspace. Pretty sure they find it lame too.

jimmy fallon is the opposite of comedy

On a side note, my days of watching Late Night ended after Conan left. Although Jimmy Fallon seems like a really nice guy, and as much as I’d like to enjoy the show, it’s painfully awkward to watch him flounder at the mercy of an unsympathetic crowd. I’ve defected to Late Late Show recently, which never fails to make me laugh. Craig Ferguson is an excellent host with a distinct, signature humor, and it’s a shame that his show goes under the radar.

And, since my One Craig Clip a day campaign Craig’s actually climbing in the ratings, which is strange since almost no one reads my blog.

But you all can by clicking my name above this comment. There are lots of illustrative clips there, in fact almost one Craig clip a day.

Why almost. Because I’m human.

Anyway, I’m sure lots of people are suggesting that this is the end for Conan, but if you’ve taken a look at the ratings for ALL of NBC’s shows, Conan is a top draw.

Leno won the ratings war because he got the guests. That’s what put him over originally and that’s what will help Conan in the end.

Plus most of Dave’s viewers are on life support (literally) as were Leno’s, so they’re liable to kick the bucket any day and that’ll help Conan in the long run.

I’ve never met anyone who liked Leno who was under 50 and the only place you see Leno fans is on AOL or places like here where they post stuff like “Conehead O’Brien” and think it’s funny. Clearly there is no accounting for taste in that generation.

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.

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.

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).

I thought Letterman would win that..

he must have a huge audience relatively speaking ages 60+

ABC “Nightline” 1,473,000/ 1.2

CBS “Late Show” 1,326,000/ 1.1

NBC “Tonight” 1,466,000/ 1.2

I wanted SO much to love the new Tonight Show, but it really has fallen off dramatically and the ratings reflect that.

Another observation, yes, Dave had Sir Paul on last Friday, but he has consistently had better, “A” list guests than Conan. What happened?