Late Show UK

Ratings for The Tonight Show With Jay Leno have fallen to their lowest they’ve been since 1992.

Variety reports “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno won the 11:30 hour in the 18-49 demo and total audience, but auds dropped from 5 million in 2009 to 4 million total viewers, which is the lowest since 1992. A major reason for the decline was large viewership a year ago for a highly publicized Tonight Show episodes, including Leno’s final night, Conan O’Brien’s first night and an interview with President Obama”.

Fox News reports “Apparently Leno is not only getting equal-to-fewer viewers than the freakishly tall redhead, his show costs NBC $10-15 million more a year than O’Brien’s show did… Leno’s higher salary — $30 million per year, compared to O’Brien’s $15 million — plus the cost of his bigger production staff could even be pushing the show into the red, according to insiders”.

Variety – “‘Kimmel,’ ‘Nightline’ show demo increase”
Fox News – “Jay Leno’s Ratings Dip Below Conan O’Brien’s on ‘Tonight Show’”
MediaPost – “Conan Beats Leno In Late-Night Ratings”

Jay Leno’s second tenure on The Tonight Show started last week amid much controversy over the ousting of former host Conan O’Brien.

The first show on Monday 1st March gained a huge amount of viewers for NBC who have been struggling of late – not just in late night but across the board. He said “It’s good to be home. I’m Jay Leno, your host… at least for a while… I’ll admit I’m a little bit nervous, not because it’s my first night back, but because I know Dave [Letterman] and Oprah [Winfrey] are watching”.

However, since that first show The Tonight Show has been falling behind and the Late Show With David Letterman is now leading the ratings war.

TV By The Numbers report ““The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” (3.2/8 in metered-market households) trailed CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman” (3.5/9) while topping ABC’s “Nightline (2.7/) and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (1.3/4) in Nielsen’s 56 metered markets” and “◦In the 25 markets with Local People Meters, “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” (1.1/5) ranked #1 among the major networks in the time period over “Late Show” (1.0/5), “Nightline” (1.1/4) and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (0.9/4)”.

However, certain guests like Sarah Palin have helped boost ratings for certain shows.

Will The Tonight Show With Jay Leno stand the test of time? I guess we’ll wait and see.

Digital Spy – “Leno: ‘It’s good to be back on Tonight’”
Examiner – “TV Ratings News: Leno’s ‘Tonight Show’ now trailing Letterman…”
TV By The Numbers – “Early Tuesday Results Indicate Split Decision…”

The final episode of The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien was a huge ratings success.

Entertainment Weekly reports it “earned a whopping 7.0 rating/16 share in 55 of the country’s metered markets (the most immediate numbers available). Ratings for his fellow latenight hosts didn’t even come close: The Late Show with David Letterman averaged a mere 2.5/5, while Nightline earned a 2.8/6, and Jimmy Kimmel Live, a 1.3/4. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, however, was able to draft off of O’Brien’s success: his show averaged a respectible 3.3/10, easily beating Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (1.5/4)”.

If only those ratings were a regular thing and he might still be at NBC.

Entertainment Weekly (EW.com) – “Conan O’Brien’s farewell attracts big ratings”

CBS Entertainment report the Late Show With David Letterman has topped the viewing figures for a tenth consecutive week in the latest Nielsen ratings (week ending the 11th September). They say the “Late Show With David Letterman delivered a 2.4/06 in households with an average of 3.28m viewers. Late Show beat “The Tonight Show” in viewers (3.28m vs. 2.93m, +12%)”. It’s also reported the Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson “posted a 1.2/04 in households with 1.56m viewers, its largest weekly average audience since the week ending July 10″.

CBS Press Express – “Dave’s Winning Streak Hits 10″
TV By The Numbers – “David Letterman’s Winning Streak Hits 10 weeks”

The Jay Leno Show made its debut on NBC last night – 17.7 million people watched it. Leno has faced some negative reviews of the opening show though, as critics thought it was lazy of him to stay with a very similar format to The Tonight Show (for example Headlines is featured on the new show, as it was on The Tonight Show).

The Associated Press reporter Frazier Moore said “the biggest difference between Leno’s new show and his old one: With his fade-out at 11pm, the local news began”, and The Los Angeles Times said it was “a strange, shallow puddle of comedy”.

The first show did have it’s viewer draws – including Kanye West’s appearance to explain what happened at the MTV VMAs (the infamous moment when he interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech) and to apologise for what he did.

In addition to Kanye West’s appearance, Jerry Seinfeld was interviewed and music came from Jay-Z and Rihanna (with Kanye performing with them).

The official website for The Jay Leno Show has now fully launched – it includes video clips (US only), full episode streaming (US only), photos, exclusives, message boards, etc.

If you saw the show, please let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment on this post.

The Associated Press – “Leno show reaches 17.7 million viewers”
The Los Angeles Times – “‘Jay Leno Show’ stays on familiar ground”

The impressive ratings for the Late Show With David Letterman continue for another week, in the latest set of statistics released. Ratings from AGB Nielsen say the Late Show has held the lead over The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien for a fourth consecutive week.

NY Daily News notes this “marks Letterman’s longest ratings win streak since 1995″ and overall “Letterman had 3.38 million viewers to O’Brien’s 2.63 million” in the latest week to be announced in these new figures. The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien does still hold the lead for the 18-to-49 year old bracket though.

NY Daily News – “Inner tube: David Letterman beats Conan O’Brien for fourth week”

More people have been watching the Late Show With David Letterman than The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien recently. The recent viewing figures show Letterman is winning the ratings war with Tonight by a significant amount overall.

The New York Times says “On Wednesday [when Paul McCartney was a guest on the Late Show], Mr. Letterman had 4.4 million viewers to 2.5 million for Mr. O’Brien… Last week, Mr. O’Brien attracted 2.8 million viewers, below the previous low”.

However, they also say “The story among younger viewers, especially those between the ages of 18 and 34, continues to be much better for Mr. O’Brien. He was up 26 per cent in that group from Mr. Leno last year, though down 7 per cent among viewers between 18 and 49″.

The recent high-profile Late Show moments will no doubt have helped boost the ratings – the Sarah Palin joke “controversy” for example, and Sir Paul McCartney on the show last night.

The New York Times – “Letterman Is on a Roll, and Conan Posts a ‘Tonight’ Low”

We previously posted how the Late Show With David Letterman was drawing in more viewers for the week of 8th June, and how it was almost at level-pegging in the ratings with The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien. Well, it now seems the Late Show is doing even better in the current set of ratings to be released.

The Tonight Show is now behind the Late Show in the ratings. This is the first time the Late Show had more viewers than Tonight since 2005. The Live Feed reports “The “Late Show” drew more viewers than the “Tonight Show” in last week’s ratings — the first time the CBS program has pulled a larger audience for a full-week average since 2005″.

The Associated Press says “It was Letterman’s first win during a full week of all-new broadcasts since December 2005, when Oprah Winfrey was his guest on the CBS late-night show. Letterman was perhaps given a ratings boost from lingering controversy over a wisecrack that targeted the family of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin”.

The Live Feed – “‘Late Show’ outdraws ‘Tonight’ for first time since ’05″
The Associated Press – “Letterman’s ‘Late Show’ beats the ‘Tonight Show’”
Perez Hilton – “Conan O’Brien Is Losing The Ratings Game!”

All of this Sarah Palin controversy has done little to dent the Late Show With David Letterman – in fact, it’s made it even more popular.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting “for the week of June 8… “Late Show” averaged 3.67 million viewers, while “Tonight” posted 3.77 million. For “Late Show,” it was the closest competitive position to “Tonight” since December 2005, Nielsen said”. So it looks as though the ridiculous “Fire David Letterman” movement isn’t getting its wish – no surprise really.

I would have posted more up about the “Fire David Letterman” protests but I would rather just ignore the whole thing and wait for normality to return, instead of giving these “protesters” free publicity. The “Top Ten Things Overhead at the ‘Fire David Letterman’ Rally” Top Ten on the Late Show earlier this month was pretty hilarious though (click here if you haven’t seen it).

Los Angeles Times – “Spat with Sarah Palin doesn’t hurt David Letterman’s ratings”

Whilst I was on vacation, The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien made its debut on NBC. The first show – on 1st June – saw Conan take over the franchise of The Tonight Show from Jay Leno.

The first show opened with a video showing Conan getting ready to start The Tonight Show only to realise he forgot one important thing – he forgot to move from New York to Los Angeles where The Tonight Show is filmed. The Tonight Show is housed in a studio in the Universal Studios lot.

In the video, Conan couldn’t hail a cab in NYC so ran from New York to Los Angeles passing through various points across the country on the way – including Las Vegas – but when he arrived in LA he forgot he left his keys in his NYC apartment, so he plowed the door to The Tonight Show studio with a mechanical digger.

Other highlights of the first show included Conan doing a Universal Studios tour in the Universal tour tram, where he took the tram outside of the lot and caused mayhem, and guests Will Ferrell (who arrived in style and even sang a special song for Conan) & Pearl Jam.

Some of his first words on the show were “I think I’ve timed this move perfectly. I’m on a last-place network, I moved to a state that’s bankrupt and The Tonight Show is sponsored by General Motors”.

Something to note about The Tonight Show – it keeps a very similar theme tune to Late Night With Conan O’Brien with some tweaks. Click here to watch the opening titles.

The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien has been a hit in the ratings – Variety says its first week ratings “proved to be even bigger than expected in key demos” and that it “averaged a 2.3 rating in adults 18-49″ which outdid the ratings of CBS’s Late Show With David Letterman. Jimmy Fallon – host of Late Night – saw big ratings for his show on the debut week of The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien. The Tonight Show saw Late Night With Jimmy Fallon get record ratings.

Variety – “O’Brien off and running on ‘Tonight’”
Times Online – “Conan O’Brien makes a hairy start as new ‘Tonight Show’ host”
Official website for The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien

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