Sorry Team Conan, Jay Leno’s Re-Premiere Ratings Are Enormous

Jay Leno‘s Tonight Show re-premiere last night, as expected, gave NBC a huge victory over CBS.

How big? Here’s a breakdown:

Here’s TVByTheNumbers:

In the local people meter markets Leno was twice as popular with adults 18-49, scoring a 2.0 rating vs a 1.0 rating for Letterman.

In the metered market houshold ratings between 11:30p-12:30a Jay Leno’s return to The Tonight Show dominated Leterman and Late Show. Leno had a 5.4/14 (household rating/share) to Letterman’s 3.0/8.

This is significantly higher than Conan’s fourth quarter averages, however less than Conan’s premiere back in June. But this isn’t exactly the same as a “premiere” since even Leno billed the 10pm show as something of a bad dream last night.

Instead, Leno was back in his comfort zone and the audience responded. It was night #1, which is sure to inflate the ratings. But all indications point to Leno building back the total viewing audience lead Conan lost to Letterman on a regular basis.

Tonight, with Sarah Palin and her ‘late night premiere’ (or not), the tune in could be even greater.

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