Comments on: Median age for Conan = 47.5, "Nightline" = 56.3, Letterman = 57.1

By: MT

MT — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:07:22 +0000

The Tonight Show set is the best thing about the show. Jay Leno should have had those people build his set, too–it hurts my eyes when I try to watch The Jay Leno Show. His set is awful! I cannot believe they said yes to whoever designed it. Wow. But after I look at The Tonight Show set for a minute or two, I have to turn to CBS because Dave’s show is so much more appealing. Plus, I look so forward to seeing my new hero, Craig Ferguson. He was an acquired taste, but I can’t miss his monologue and his ceremonial tearing up of the question cards.

By: Boris

Boris — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:16:37 +0000

I suppose the median of the means is more likely.

By: Boris

Boris — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:09:21 +0000

Am I missing the gag? These can’t be median ages unless one is counting by days. The mean of the medians?

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:25:46 +0000

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.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:18:40 +0000

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.

By: Jim

Jim — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:14:21 +0000

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.

By: Kermonk

Kermonk — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:01:38 +0000

“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.

By: Jasmine

Jasmine — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:17:56 +0000

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.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:09:10 +0000

The interesting thing is that Conan did WORSE among 18-34s than Jay did last year.

By: SB

SB — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:58:19 +0000

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).

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:15:04 +0000

SB:

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/10/17/jay-leno-and-conan-obrien-win-the-week-of-oct-6-10-in-18-49-viewers/6425

By: SB

SB — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:13:30 +0000

Does anyone know what Conan and Jay’s numbers were a year ago? It would be really interesting to compare.

By: Doug (2)

Doug (2) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:59:26 +0000

Another problem, Michael, is that Conan brought his 12:30 audience to 11:30 and very little else.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:43:58 +0000

Letterman isn’t going to get fired unless something else turns up, like he threatened to fire a woman unless she slept with him.

By: Jasmine

Jasmine — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:28:05 +0000

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.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:07:35 +0000

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.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:53:36 +0000

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!

By: Andrea

Andrea — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:50:23 +0000

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?

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:49:22 +0000

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.

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:43:36 +0000

I’d love to see how these age numbers (~47-57) compare with the age numbers for some of the prime time programs.

By: J.R. Herbaugh

J.R. Herbaugh — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:40:13 +0000

So, these Letterman viewers have dinner at 430pm and stay up another eight hours?

By: Doug (2)

Doug (2) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:26:06 +0000

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.

By: Worldwide Pants

Worldwide Pants — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:17:48 +0000

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?