There has been lots of chatter lately about how "The Internet" has voted for Conan O'Brien. Sadly for Conan, Internet chatter doesn't pay the bills at the TV networks, and neither can it threaten to scuttle the NBCU/Comcast deal.
In the battle of Jay vs. Conan, the end of "Conan at 11:35" might have been prevented had viewers actually watched his show. Had Conan been pulling better ratings at 11:35, NBC may very well have given Jay the heave ho at this point, instead of effectively giving it to Conan.
The chart above tracks the weekly ratings for The Tonight Show and Letterman's Late Show since Conan took over through the week ending 1/1/10 Chart updated to include ratings through 1/8/10. While week to week variations are often explained by repeat runs, the overall trend is clear. After trailing Leno's Tonight Show for nearly a generation, Letterman closed the 18-49 demo gap with Conan in early fall and things have been neck and neck since then.
While I am sympathetic to arguments like "Conan wasn't given a chance", "Leno took all the guests and killed 10pm ratings", and "Conan didn't have enough time", clearly NBC was not.
The NBC affiliates presumably forced a move right now, and Conan was left with the short end of the stick. That might have been different if all the members of "Team Conan" had actually watched his show.
As always, a great breakdown of the viewership trends. I also love the tombstone. It seems that there were many “team Conan” members that never showed up for roll call until it was too late.
I read all the jokes “Team Conan” were telling at Jay Leno’s expense. Well a top trending topic on Twitter doesn’t mean victory. You may be Team Conan, but apparently NBC isn’t
Ok, just for that Tombstone, I’m not watching Chuck either.
I believe Conan’s argument was that he wasn’t given enough time to build this own 11:35 audience and to establish himself as a long term force in that timeslot.
For a show in the primetime 8-11 slot, obviously there’s a lot more pressure to get big numbers fast, which is why Leno was cancelled so quickly.
But for a late night show, I don’t think you can make that type of a judgment after only a few months.
A bit of perspective, as it is sadly lacking from the author: The Tonight Show’s ratings declined sharply when Leno took over from Carson, too. The difference is, the network allowed him time to build an audience. And with fewer viewing options available, it was a helluva lot easier to do that in 1992 than it is today.
Conan has nothing to be sorry for. It was NBC and Leno who colluded in this misguided 10 p.m. experiment, and Conan who is the scapegoat for their folly.
Yeah, the internet screams the loudest, but hasn’t really done too much in terms of actually affecting anything. If the internet were “ratings” then Conan might’ve had record setting highs for ratings, and Ron Paul would’ve been elected president in 2008 haha.
And just for the record, I don’t believe that Jay Leno was canceled @ 10pm for his show’s failure. He was moreso canceled because of Conan’s failure, the suits who made the decision were anticipating Leno’s move back to 11:35. The Jay Leno Show did all NBC was expecting it to do
You know what else doesn’t help? Having a similiar show on 90 minutes earlier.
I wonder how Leno would have done back in the day if NBC had given Carson 10pm 5 nights a week. Build an audience? Nah.
Funny how it seems that gap closed right when The Jay Leno show launched killing the lead-in.
This site has had its head up Leno’s butt for months. You’re the ones who said he wasn’t hurting primetime, who said Southland would be doing just as bad in his time slot, who swore on your mothers’ graves that Leno wouldn’t be pulled. Hah! Now you’ve got egg on your chin. Now you’re acting like petty indignant children. A tombstone? How original. Where was the tombstone for The Jay Leno Show? Being made to look like fools must hurt for a website that claims to have an inside track on viewer habits, so much so that you’re still in denial and using Conan as an outlet for your anger. O’Brien has more class than Leno and this site. I’m done here. Have fun predicting which shows will and won’t survive. It worked so well for you this time.
“The Tonight Show’s ratings declined sharply when Leno took over from Carson, too. The difference is, the network allowed him time to build an audience”
More perspective (because it’s lacking on your part also): Jay Leno didn’t have his own late-night show for 16 years before he started hosting the Tonight Show.
MockingbirdGirl, and others who don’t read the post,
Did I not write “While I am sympathetic to arguments like “Conan wasn’t given a chance”, “Leno took all the guests and killed 10pm ratings”, and “Conan didn’t have enough time”, clearly NBC was not.”
I love how there’s the post about yesterday’s Tonight Show and then right after that a post that tells us that his ratings suck. How’s that for irony…
Looking at the 4-week trendline, wouldn’t a possible interpretation be that, while the Late Show-vs.-Tonight Show ratings did some gymnastics during the first few months of Conan’s run, the two shows seemed to be settling into an oddly parallel and near-equal performance since sometime in October, dipping and rising in unison.
In other words, there MIGHT have been a new stable equilibrium emerging, and one that wouldn’t be that surprising, given that Conan and Dave seem to have alsways had very similar followings. And running neck-and-neck with the other main force in network late night programming may not be as fun as slam-dunk winning, but it ain’t failure, either.
Jay, “And just for the record, I don’t believe that Jay Leno was canceled @ 10pm for his show’s failure. He was moreso canceled because of Conan’s failure, the suits who made the decision were anticipating Leno’s move back to 11:35. The Jay Leno Show did all NBC was expecting it to do”
There are many “why did this happen” theories flying around, but that one’s the goofiest I have read. Leno was canceled because Conan was doing badly? Huh?
MayB all this is a scandal made by NBC to increase the ratings of the Tonight Show. In the end Conan will stay and Leno will B abducted by aliens; so no other network can have him.
Dennis, last night’s ratings for Conan were too little, too late.
chirp, I don’t think Conan was a “failure”, and never wrote that, just that had he done better, it might be Jay out on then street now instead of him.
Not a Conan fan but his ratings are bad for the same reason the local affiliate news ratings are bad, Jay Leno killed the 10:00 PM time slot and brought down all of NBC’s ratings. Had NBC put on a good medical or crime drama at 10:00 PM it is possible that Conan would have good ratings and I say that as someone who never liked Conan’s shows. Yes Conan has bad TV ratings but so do the local newscasts and the reason is that Jay Leno scared everyone away. It is quite possible with some go dramas on at 10:00 PM that Conan gets good ratings. Jay Leno had good ratings as Tonight Show host because he didn’t have a bad talkshow at 10:00PM so the problem is Jay Leno not Conan.
This is a sad mess all the way around. The only show that “wins” is Letterman and he isn’t that good. For O’brien it is a slap in the face and a tarnished career that may take years to recover unless he can re-direct his talents in a whole new direction – at least for a few years until this debacle is history (acting?). For Leno it is pretty iffy. Loyal fans of the old Tonight Show have settled into new patterns. I now watch Leno at 10:00 followed by the news followed by bed while night owls have switched to Letterman or in some cases watch both Leno and Letterman. Can Leno pull these folks back after being away from the 11:35 slot for so long? He may inherit O’brien’s demos along with his time slot. And Leno’s writers need to get back on board. In the old days Leno’s monologue had more laughs per minute than any other monologue. Now it has more video clips per minute. Where is the fast paced witty spiel we used to see? If/When Leno goes back to TTS he needs to get back to the old set, format, furniture, space etc. Both Leno and O’brien suffer from over-sized and over-hyped staging. Get back to basics, NBC.
@Bill, like I said, the suits at NBC were anticipating moving Jay Leno back to 11:35. The heat from the affiliates had a lot to do with the 10pm show ending, but so did Conan’s failure under the Tonight Show.