NBC Trying to Screw Conan and the Tonight Show

[Matt]

Jay Leno's ratings fall below Conan's on 'The Tonight Show'

For the first time, Jay Leno's average weekly ratings among 18-49-year-old viewers has fallen below Conan O'Brien's... (TV analyst Joe) Adalian noted that Leno averaged only a 1.0 rating and a 5 share last week versus O'Brien's 1.1/5 average -- despite the fact that CBS was airing repeats of Late Show with David Letterman, which drew a 0.8/3 in the demo. Moreover, Leno now benefits from a much stronger nightly lead-in -- with shows like Parenthood and The Marriage Ref being aired by the network in the 10 00 p.m. time period -- than O'Brien did when his lead-in was Leno.

Seven weeks in, Leno is averaging a 1.0 in the 18-49 demo while David Letterman averages a 0.8. These are precisely the same numbers "The Tonight Show" and "The Late Show" were pulling seven weeks into Conan’s “Tonight” tenure.

The chart also reminds us that before “The Jay Leno Show” started last September (at week 16 into Conan’s run, I think), Conan won the 18-49 race against Letterman every single week last summer.

Only after “The Jay Leno Show’s” arrival as Conan’s 10 p.m. lead-in did Conan begin losing to Letterman in 18-49 for the first time.

Coco will also make his first post-Tonight Show TV appearance on 60 Minutes this upcoming Sunday.

[venture]

I wouldn't be shocked to see him as a guest on Letterman before too long.

[ShiroiHikari]

And yet there are still people out there who say Conan deserved to get screwed because his ratings were bad. Where's that logic now?

[ljbab728]

And yet there are still people out there who say Conan deserved to get screwed because his ratings were bad. Where's that logic now?

I have little sympathy for anyone in show business who makes the money they do. They can get screwed and still be set for life. I would love to be screwed like that.

[ShiroiHikari]

I wasn't talking about money. I was talking about how people say that Conan couldn't get ratings without acknowledging the fact that Leno also couldn't get ratings and that's what started this whole thing.

[ljbab728]

I wasn't talking about money. I was talking about how people say that Conan couldn't get ratings without acknowledging the fact that Leno also couldn't get ratings and that's what started this whole thing.

I didn't say you were talking about money. But I could endure a lot of grief from any network about anything, ratings or otherwise, if I could make that kind of money. Showbusiness is a cut throat occupation and you have to be prepared for the negatives when you have so much to gain monetarily.

[Matt]

Tonight Show with Jay Leno Posts Lowest Ratings Since 1992

By Kate Stanhope Sat Jul 3, 9:10 AM PDT

Less than six months after Jay Leno returned to hosting The Tonight Show, the show's ratings are the lowest they've been since 1992, Variety reports.

In the second quarter of this year, the average total audience declined from 5 million viewers last year to 4 million viewers. This time last year featured a number of high-profile episodes, including an interview with President Barack Obama, Leno's final night and Conan O'Brien's debut as host.

The Tonight Show still beat David Letterman in the adults-18-to-49 demo, as well as in total audience. Late Show with David Letterman also dropped to its lowest audience totals since the show's first year on the air (1993), averaging 3.3 million viewers in the second quarter this year. Late Show was also topped by Nightline in total viewers for the first time since 2000, with Nightline averaging 3.7 million viewers.

When Leno returned to the Tonight Show desk in March, he attracted an impressive 6.6 million viewers. However, his second first night hosting was still 58 percent lower than O'Brien's ratings on his first night on the job in June of 2009.

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Will Jay receive walking papers?

Low ratings and high production costs have pushed NBC’s Tonight show with Jay Leno into the red, the New York Post reported today (Friday), citing unnamed insiders. “Leno May Be Next,” the newspaper said in a headline, suggesting that Comcast may replace Leno once it gains control of NBC Universal later this year. “You can’t figure they’re happy about this,” said the newspaper’s source. Ratings for Tonight have fallen below those that Conan O’Brien garnered when he hosted last year. Moreover, the network is shelling out considerably more money for Leno than it did for O’Brien — $30 million per year vs. O’Brien’s $15 million, according to the newspaper, plus the cost of a bigger production staff. What’s more, the Tonight show, whose audience is down 20 percent since Leno left the show a year ago, has been overtaken in the ratings by the ABC newsmagazine Nightline at 11:30 p.m., and Tonight’s ratings appear to have only one way to go once O’Brien enters the late-night fray in the fall. Meanwhile, David Letterman’s ratings remain virtually flat with last year, which, commented the website TVbytheNumbers.com, “is pretty good in the broadcast television world where ‘flat is the new up.’” Letterman’s network, CBS, boasted in a news release on Thursday that Letterman’s Late Show “delivered its most competitive second quarter against The Tonight Show in viewers and key demographics since 1995.

[oneforone]

Of course ratings are going to be down it's summertime. People are out and about doing things and enjoying the outdoors. Besides many of the summertime shows are repeats including late night talk shows. This would be something to talk about it if this was October or February. Besides more and more people are walking away from scheduled television and using DVR, PC's, IPODS and other media devices to take in their favorite shows. I give it another ten years and scheduled tv will be obsolete.

[dmoor82]

I miss Co-Co!bring back my damn Co-Co!

[oneforone]

He supposedly signed a deal with TBS.

NEW YORK — The late-night guessing game is over, with a startling twist: Conan O'Brien has chosen TBS as his future talk-show home.
Expected to debut in November, the as-yet-untitled show will return O'Brien to the air after an absence that began in January when he abruptly left NBC, his employer of 17 years.
O'Brien's new program will air Mondays through Thursdays at 11 p.m. Eastern, which will shift "Lopez Tonight," starring George Lopez, from 11 p.m. EDT to midnight.
O'Brien's show will originate from Los Angeles, where he moved from New York for his short-lived stint hosting "The Tonight Show." For the second half of his show, he will face off against Jay Leno, who replaced him.
Upon TBS' announcement Monday, O'Brien quickly fired out a celebratory tweet.
"The good news: I will be doing a show on TBS starting in November! The bad news: I'll be playing Rudy on the all new Cosby Show," he posted on Twitter.
Supporting call
TBS said that talks with O'Brien accelerated last week after Lopez called O'Brien to ask him to come aboard.