Comments on: Conan wins adults 18-49 demo with widest margin since June

By: Ron

Ron — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:23:16 +0000

You can spin this anyway you want to make the numbers look good. The fact still remains: The Tonight Show has lost 2 million viewers since Conan took over… NBC can say they’re happy with the performance all they want, but you know behind closed doors they’re kicking themselves in the butt for that decision.

By: TSA

TSA — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:20:33 +0000

Bad trend for Letterman here. If Conan decreases that total viewers lead more in next week’s release, I’d say he’s probably damned to second place again (baring any possible negative effects on Conan by The Jay Leno Show).

Meanwhile, Fallon’s starting to look hopeless.

Jon, I do agree that Conan seemed to be at his best a couple years ago, but he was still very good when he left Late Night. Someone else here said it looks like they’re making Conan’s show more and more like Jay’s old show. I haven’t seen that lately, but then again I don’t watch every night anymore. Anyway, whether or not they really are doing that, I do think that the problem is that Conan’s under pressure to make his show like Jay’s.

By: Elie Muller

Elie Muller — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:53:55 +0000

This is why we need talkshow with spike feresten back on fox. It had better ratings than jimmy fallon and carson daly are having now. Everybody who agrees with me, choose the talkshow with spike feresten for my “weeknight update which show you want back on fox challenge” on my youtube page right now.

By: Greg Strussman

Greg Strussman — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 18:34:34 +0000

Are these numbers “real?” Coco is achieving what NBC wanted in replacing Jay, he is siphoning the younger viewers even though his “total” viewers do not seem to “matter.” NBC is winning based on the demographic profile of both “Tonight” and “Late Show,” but the interesting part of the story is how many of these so called younger viewers have jobs or income to buy sponsor’s products?

To me if the the traditional networks were smart, they would go after the traditional television viewer (40 and over) because they are the ones who are still/most loyal to the “traditional” broadcast networks.

Younger viewers, in my opinion, will not clammor to “Jay” who will lead in to the local news in to “Conan,” “Jimmy,” etc. So to me, why not take the best part of the most loyal audience and build it and let the other demographic profiles follow?

By: Ratings: August 24-28. « Craig Ferguson News & Updates.

Ratings: August 24-28. « Craig Ferguson News & Updates. — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 15:58:39 +0000

[...] Source: NBC Press Release. [...]

By: Chic Doodles

Chic Doodles — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 09:32:08 +0000

Bottom line–Conan gets fewer viewers age 18-49 than Leno did. Conan appeals to younger viewers less than Leno appeals to younger viewers. There is no way to spin that.

Conan is a 46 year old man. He is unattractive. He is not funny. He is tense and arrogant. Repeat–He is not funny. These qualities don’t scream “young” to me but, then again, I’m not Jeff Zucker.

By: Hector

Hector — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 01:24:10 +0000

‘Jay Leno in 2008 August 25-29 averaged 1.7 million 18-49 and 4.5 million total viewers. Conan O’brien August 24-28 2009 has 1.5 million 18-49 and 2.8 million total vievers. That is a complete disaster’

those numbers by themselves arent a disaster. Dave’s number have stayed about the same – meaning theyre not as good as Leno’s used to be. But he’s beating Conan. Are Conan and Dave’s numbers both disasters because theyre both not as good as Leno’s old numbers?
I know that quote goes along with the implication that it was a bad idea to replace leno with conan. I’m just picking it apart because I’m an ass.

Also, Conan is said to appeal to younger viewers because generally thats what he does. Leno was usually around 5 Million. But using those numbers from that week last august and this past month….

1.7M 18-49 out of 4.5M total = 38ish % of Leno’s audience 18-49
1.5M 18-49 out of 2.8M total = 54ish % of Conan’s audience 18-49

That’s why the general consensus is Conan gets young viewers. The majority of Conan’s audience is 18-49. The majority of Leno’s wasn’t. It’s kind of crazy seeing those numbers that conan is even that close to Leno’s demo numbers considering he has almost 2 million less viewers.

By: Jim LaForte

Jim LaForte — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:01:10 +0000

It is a tough business to write comedy every night and for a host to be truly funny. Do you ever wonder if Conan is still in shock over landing the gig of a lifetime? I do believe that he started going stale and marking time about two years ago. Jimmy Fallon was a safe bet both from NBC’s and Lorne Michael’s vantage point as he was already in the NBC family. However, I was of the thinking that Carson Daly would have been a wiser choice because he seems more broad based (demographically speaking) but not a lot of people on various blogs dig him.

I have not watched Jimmy Fallon in quite some time but thought that he was marginally okay…LOL…

By: Evan

Evan — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:15:41 +0000

Thanks, Bill.

By: jon

jon — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 22:02:04 +0000

And how about Fallon. The guy has lost like 5 straight weeks to Ferguson. Fallon is terrible, those terrible skits where he does that carpet game and they spin the wheel, his show is a joke. He hasn’t done anything funny in months and he has like 1 good writer, but he only writes 10% of the jokes. He seems so nervous because he’s losing to Ferguson, and his monologue is ridiculously bad. I just don’t understand how you can have Conan and Jimmy Fallon as your late night guys. What a joke.

By: T.S.

T.S. — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:52:54 +0000

I’ve been a Conan fan for years, but these days I have to admit the moments where he has me chuckling are far and few between. Not that I’ve been keeping score, but since the move to 11:35, Andy has provided more of these moments for me than Conan.

**Twitter Tracker voice**
Oh no, CoCo lost his mojo?

By: jon

jon — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:52:26 +0000

It doesn’t matter that Conan is doing better 18-34 they don’t have any money. Besides, 25-54 is the real important demo these days and they are basically even in that demo. In 49-54 Letterman is winning.

By: jon

jon — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:50:47 +0000

Conan is doing a little better than Jay in 18-34. It doesn’t matter, Jay did better in 18-49. 18-34 Demo doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have the 18-49 to back it up. Besides, 25-54 is more important than both of those demos, young people don’t have money anyways.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:33:57 +0000

Jon, NBC’s argument is that Conan’s doing better than Jay in 18-34,which is true. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to offset the fact that Jay did better in 18-49.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:15:59 +0000

Evan, with late night, we don’t data directly from Nielsen. All we see is what the press releases (like this one) provide. And, not surprisingly, they provide what advances their PR agenda.

By: cocochef

cocochef — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:58:09 +0000

Golly Gee It figures that the rest of America (Critics included) wouldn’t like the show because I LOVE it…The only misstep I have seen is when Conan invited the boorish Norm MacDonald on the show not once but twice this summer. But I guess I won’t count in the ratings because although I watch it regularly, I see it recorded the next day. My 15 and 11 year old love it too and although we could have recorded and watched Jay or Dave we never did.

By: Jim LaForte

Jim LaForte — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:56:28 +0000

I still do not understand the “spin.” So Dave’s and Craigger’s Friday shows were excluded from the tab and they still beat NBC by a considerable margin? Am I reading this correctly? Four nights out of five Dave still kicked Conan’s butt? What I do not understand is how they crow about demos when Dave seems to be doing okay himself. What am I missing here?

By: Evan

Evan — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:52:40 +0000

What are the actual numbers 18-34?

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:43:40 +0000

3rd in viewers week after week. Pathetic, there’s no other way to say it. And yes, the show itself has gotten a little better lately, but that’s beacause NBC is trying to lenonize it. Conan stil sucks

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:23:56 +0000

The thing people don’t understand about Conan O’brien is that he stopped being funny 2 years ago. Remember, he was losing to Craig Ferguson at 12:30 the last few months before Conan left.
Around 2 years ago Conan started getting real old and not funny. People think he stopped being funny when he took over Tonight show, his career was going down hill a few years ago when Ferguson started beating him. What a mistake for NBC. How does Zucker keep his job.

By: TD

TD — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:16:14 +0000

I watched Conan last night for the first time in about a month. It seems to me from the last time I watched it they are trying to make the show more like Leno’s old show. Some of the skits and gags seemed to come straight out of Leno’s playbook. Me thinks someone at NBC gave Conan a memo they have to make their comedy a bit more mainstream a la Leno.

By: Taylor

Taylor — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:14:14 +0000

Never mind, I was looking at the season-to-date.

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:13:44 +0000

Jay Leno in 2008 August 25-29 averaged 1.7 million 18-49 and 4.5 million total viewers. Conan O’brien August 24-28 2009 has 1.5 million 18-49 and 2.8 million total vievers. That is a complete disaster. It is disgraceful when Jeff Zucker says that Conan is doing “incredibly well demographically” when he is doing worse than Leno did last year. Conan is going against a 63 year old man and should be doing well demographically. As a young person, 26 years old I find it insulting when people say Conan appeals to young people, when I find him terrible. He has ruined the Tonight Show and I can’t believe people think he does well with young people when Leno did better.

By: Taylor

Taylor — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:13:31 +0000

Conan’s total viewer audience is closer to Letterman’s than it’s been in awhile. The coming weeks shall be interesting.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:52:49 +0000

That could be worse for Conan. 1.4 is pretty good. And the total viewers could be wirse. In 5 or 6 Months, Conan will be back on top with the viewers. At leasi I hope.

By: SB

SB — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:42:34 +0000

I’ll give NBC the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the PR department was so bored with the show, even they thought it was still in reruns!

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:36:21 +0000

SB, I added a note in the top, and it could be they reissue the release. As noted above, we use a lot of template-based publishing here and make those sort of mistakes a lot ourselves unintentionally. But I agree it is convenient!

By: SB

SB — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:22:41 +0000

Why did it say under Total Viewers that Tonight Show was in “encore telecasts”? I guess when it’s the important category that you’re losing in, it doesn’t hurt to have a convenient “typo”.