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

by Steve Krakauer | 12:41 pm, March 2nd, 2010

» 7 comments

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

How big? Here’s a breakdown:

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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Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, NBC, Ratings, Tonight Show

http://www.facebook.com/people/Janet-Shan/1127645593 Janet Shan

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. NBC blew it when they played musical chairs with late night television. Jay Leno consistently beat David Letterman when he was on the Tonight Show previously.

http://blackpoliticalthought.blogspot.com
felixw

You can’t judge by opening night. I think that Leno will trounce Letterman, but the first show is not sufficient proof. People wanted to check out Leno’s comeback out of curiosity, and that won’t last long. Leno also needs to deliver the goods, night after night.
http://twitter.com/CRZ CRZ

This rating is meaningless! What did the late local news get? Apparently, that’s all that matters. Ask the affiliates!
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

@CRZ: With a Law & Order lead-in, I’m guessing the late, locals were much improved.
TYTR55

Interesting blog. Jay Leno (part of Baby Boom Generation, born 1942-1953) vs. Conan O’Brien (part of Generation Jones, born 1954-1965) reflects a broader battle happening throughout Western cultures: the emergence of Generation Jones leadership vs. Boomers clinging to power. GenJoneser Obama’s ascendance following 16 years of Boomer Presidencies is the most visible example, but we find it throughout the West, where more than two thirds of EU leaders are part of GenJones (following two decades of Boomer dominance).

I think this GenJones trend is worth knowing about. Google Generation Jones, and you’ll see it’s gotten lots of media attention, and many prominent commentators from many top publications and networks (Washington Post, Time magazine, NBC, Newsweek, ABC, etc.) now specifically use this term. In fact, the Associated Press’ annual Trend Report chose the Rise of Generation Jones as the #1 trend of 2009. I found this page helpful because it gives a pretty good overview of recent media interest in GenJones: http://generationjones.com/2009latest.html
JamesA1102

Jay Leno consistently beat David Letterman when he was on the Tonight Show previously.

Not really. In the race that really counts, Letterman has been kicking Leno’s butt. http://adage.com/images/random/0210/030110-LateNight-pg2.jpg?1267480645
http://www.youtube.com/cmdrgmh cmdrgmh

Lets see how Jay Jag Off does in a week or two. I will bet letterman will kick his ass. Jay is done. Too many people saw the real Jay Leno during the CoCo thing. He screwed Conan, and that was a big mistake. Retire Jack Off Jay.