here's NBC's weekly late night results press release, and to its credit given everything going on, they played down Conan's 18-34 victory. I found the median age numbers for all the shows pretty interesting though and was Surprised Letterman has a higher median age than "Nightline"!
NBC LATE-NIGHT RATINGS RESULTS FOR THE WEEK OF OCT. 5-9
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. October 16, 2009 NBC's "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" has averaged a 1.0 rating, 4 share in adults 18-49 and 2.4 million viewers overall for the week of October 5-9, an atypical week that featured heightened interest created by recent revelations on CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman."
"Tonight" out-rated "Late Show" and ABC's "Nightline" and "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in adults 18-34 for the week, posting a 0.9 rating in 18-34 versus "Late Show's" 0.7, "Nightline's" 0.7 and "Kimmel's" 0.4.
At 12:35 a.m. ET, "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" tied for #1 with CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" in adult 18-49 rating and was #1 outright among the broadcast networks in adults 18-34, attracting bigger audiences than "Late Late Show" and ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in the valuable demo.
The median age of Conan's audience last week was 47.5, more than eight years younger than "Nightline's" 56.3 and more than nine years younger than Letterman's 57.1. At 12:35 a.m. ET, the median age of Jimmy Fallon's audience (46.3) was five years younger than the audience for ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live (51.7) and six years younger than Ferguson's (52.6).
For the week of October 5-9, Conan's average 1.254 million adults 18-49 trailed the 1.426 of Letterman; in total viewers, Conan's audience of 2.377 million persons finished behind Letterman's 4.446 million; and in adults 18-34, Conan's 599,000 million topped Letterman's 463,000. At 12:35 a.m. ET, Jimmy Fallon's 740,000 adults 18-49 for the week trailed Ferguson's 780,000; in total viewers, Jimmy's 1.319 million finished behind Ferguson's 1.937 million; and in adults 18-34, Jimmy's 362,000 topped Ferguson's 281,000.
WEEKLY AVERAGES
(According to in-home viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research for the week of October 5-9. Ratings reflect "live plus same day" data unless otherwise noted. Season-to-date figures are averages of "live plus seven day" data except for the two most recent weeks, which are "live plus same day.")
ADULTS 18-49
11:35 p.m. ET
NBC "Tonight," 1.0 rating, 4 share
CBS "Late Show," 1.1/5
ABC "Nightline," 1.0/4
12:05 a.m. ET
ABC "Kimmel," 0.5/3*
12:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Late Night," 0.6/3
CBS "Late Late Show," 0.6/4
1:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Last Call," 0.3/2*
TOTAL VIEWERS
11:35 p.m. ET
NBC "Tonight," 2.4 million viewers
CBS "Late Show," 4.4 million viewers
ABC "Nightline," 3.8 million viewers
12:05 a.m. ET
ABC "Kimmel," 1.6 million viewers*
12:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Late Night," 1.3 million viewers
CBS "Late Late Show," 1.9 million viewers
1:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Last Call," 0.8 million viewers*
* Monday's "Last Call" and "Kimmel" were encores.
SEASON TO DATE
ADULTS 18-49
11:35 p.m. ET
NBC "Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien," 1.0/4 CBS "Late Show," 1.1/5 ABC "Nightline," 1.1/4
12:05 a.m. ET
ABC "Kimmel," 0.5/3
12:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," 0.6/4 CBS "Late Late Show," 0.6/4
1:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Last Call," 0.3/3
TOTAL VIEWERS
11:35 p.m. ET
NBC "Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien," 2.5 million viewers CBS "Late Show," 4.7 million viewers ABC "Nightline," 4.0 million viewers
12:05 a.m. ET
ABC "Kimmel," 1.7 million viewers
12:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," 1.4 million viewers CBS "Late Late Show," 2.0 million viewers
1:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Last Call," 0.8 million viewers
SELECTED CABLE RESULTS, WEEK OF OCTOBER 5-9
NATIONAL ADULT 18-49 RATING
Comedy Central, 11 p.m. ET, "The Daily Show," 0.7 Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m. ET, "The Colbert Report," 0.5
Adult Swim, 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET, 0.8 Adult Swim, 12:30-1:30 a.m. ET, 0.4
Each adult 18-49 rating point equals 1.32 million viewers
TOTAL VIEWERS
Comedy Central, 11 p.m. ET, "The Daily Show," 1.5 million Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m. ET, "The Colbert Report," 1.1 million
Adult Swim, 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET, 1.7 million Adult Swim, 12:30-1:30 a.m. ET, 0.9 million
I know I’m not comparing apples with apples (on many levels), but I’m smiling how close Colbert and Fallon were in total viewers last week.
For NBC, perhaps next week, they’ll use “MEAN” age instead of “MEDIAN” age, just to shake it up. I notice they used the word “atypical” yet again to describe Dave’s ratings. How often can they use this word before it has the opposite meaning?
Wow, Conan is down almost 50% in total viewers from where Jay was. If NBC’s primetime situation wasn’t such an utter disaster, I’d bet they’d move Leno back to 11:35 and let Conan go.
So, these Letterman viewers have dinner at 430pm and stay up another eight hours?
I’d love to see how these age numbers (~47-57) compare with the age numbers for some of the prime time programs.
Sam, I didn’t see the data for ALL shows, but Hibberd had a post on the median ages of the NEW shows (Plus DOLLHOUSE). If you go to THRFEED.com and scroll a bit, you’ll find it. the post was from this week.
Interesting and ties into the question I asked a couple of days ago about what the median age was for the average tv watcher.
The reason I asked was because the Futon Critic wrote that the average TV watcher isn’t his age, doesn’t surf the web and gets his DVD from the local store.
Do you believe average viewer is a Boomer who is out of the 18-49 demo?
Andrea, in primetime? Certainly. If last night ~62 percent of households were watching TV but only ~37% of 18-49 and ~32% of 18-34, I think the median age was definitely over 49 and the mean age, too!
The problem,of course, is that the MEDIAN age of Conan’s viewers is less than Dave’s but Letterman is still beating Conan in 18-49s.
That median age is really interesting. And while I’m shocked by Letterman’s median age audience being older than Nightline’s, I’m also shocked that Jimmy Kimmel’s is older than Conan’s. Wouldn’t have thought that at all.
I want to see Letterman’s numbers in a few months. Right now, its strange, but I think there is still an affair effect on Letterman. If you’ve watched recently, Letterman still cracks uncomfortable jokes about it that almost make me think he’s wondering when the boom will be lowered and he gets fired. It does sort of make you want to keep watching for the next announcement I have to say.
Letterman isn’t going to get fired unless something else turns up, like he threatened to fire a woman unless she slept with him.
Another problem, Michael, is that Conan brought his 12:30 audience to 11:30 and very little else.
Does anyone know what Conan and Jay’s numbers were a year ago? It would be really interesting to compare.
SB:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/10/17/jay-leno-and-conan-obrien-win-the-week-of-oct-6-10-in-18-49-viewers/6425
Thanks. Hmmm. Not sure if anything conclusive can be seen from a year ago, other than Conan isn’t bringing many new eyeballs to the party (but we already knew that).
The interesting thing is that Conan did WORSE among 18-34s than Jay did last year.
Michael, I didn’t say Letterman was going to get fired, I said he gives the impression like he’s waiting for the other shoe to drop. So I do think people are watching it like a trainwreck waiting to see if something else happens, if another announcement is made. Maybe his wife will divorce him and take Harry, you’re not really sure what will happen next, but Letterman hasn’t let us forget about his mistakes and doesn’t make it sound like things are rosy around there right now (saying stuff like, even the woman on the GPS is mad at me right now). So, I do think some of his ratings bump is still associated with news of the affair and extortion.
“even the woman on the GPS is mad at me right now)” – that was funny not awkward, he got a ton of funny material out of that situation.
It is unfathomable that anyone at NBC is happy with Conan’s numbers at the moment. Lower in the demo and 2 million viewers gone. Even if the demos were ok, which they aren’t. they have taken THE late night institution and pushed it down to 3rd place. Not good, at all.
Jim, I agree with your assessment of the relative lack of happiness at NBC over Conan results, but caution you on the “Conan is third” conclusion.
The PR staff at ABC is very skillful in attempting to convince folks to compare 30 minutes of Nightline ratings with 1 hour of Conan or Letterman ratings. Although we don’t see half hour breakdowns for Conan or Letterman, they would almost certainly beat Nightline in the 11:30-midnight half hour.
You’re right Bill, and I was particularly sloppy since I’ve mentioned ABC’s slippery arguments myself. Nonetheless, being buried in total viewers, not to mention having to fight to win demos, is a sad position for the venerable Tonight Show.