Conan gets his biggest ratings with finale

You know how everyone slows down on the freeway to look at a car wreck? The equivalent happened for Conan O'Brien's last appearance as host of "The Tonight Show."

After weeks of controversy over NBC's efforts to return Jay Leno to the late-night schedule and O'Brien's decision to leave rather than get pushed back to a post-midnight starting time, 10.3 million people turned out last Friday to watch his final broadcast, according to figures released today by the Nielsen Co.

That was his largest audience since moving into the "Tonight Show" job last June 1. His premiere telecast had drawn 9.2 million viewers.

For the week, "The Tonight Show" averaged 5.3 million viewers, leaving David Letterman and his "Late Show" far behind with 3.9 million. That was O'Brien's best showing since his first week on the air, when he averaged 6.1 million.

Letterman still leads in the season-to-date figures, however, averaging 4.2 million viewers to O'Brien's 2.8 million. Leno was averaging more than 5 million viewers when he hosted "The Tonight Show."

Leno alluded to that differential in the interview with Oprah Winfrey that was broadcast today. "If you look at what the ratings were, it was already destructive to the franchise," he said of O'Brien's showing. "...This was the first time in the 60-year history of 'The Tonight Show' that 'The Tonight Show' would have lost money and that's what it comes down to. It's really just a matter of dollars and cents. If the numbers had been there, they wouldn't have asked me."

--Lee Margulies  

Photo: Conan O'Brien on his debut telecast as host of "The Tonight Show." Credit: Paul Drinkwater / Associated Press

Comments

[Gregg]

Yeah but since your show sucked so bad Jay, nobody stayed on NBC to watch local news AND Conan.

[JASON]

Get real Jay, if it were all about the money, then you should have never left and NBC shouldn't have paid so much to keep both you and Conan around in the first place.)

[Nathan]

Leno is a snake, pure and simple.
Would the Leno's Tonight Show have survived if Carson had "Lenoed" Leno by taking a new show an hour earlier?

I use to watch his show, and I truly believed he was a nice guy. Never again.

[Martin]

Jay can say what every he wants to justify why he was asked to return back to the tonight show. The truth is the Tonight Show never had such a bad lead in during its history. If the Jay Leno show was any good he would have had a bigger audience, however, he blames the time slot and that the TV viewers were not ready at that hour for that type of show. That is a poor excuse for a crappy product. If you build and you are funny they will come...Jay enjoy your return, I'm sure you fans will enjoy, however, I will be watching something else. The demographics are not on your side.

[SG]

Leno can spin it anyway he wants. He could have been the bigger man and walked away. When Conan comes back on down the road on another network, I will be there.

I won't be there for ol' Big Jaw.

[calchris]

ka ching ka ching. let leon learn a lesson and never tune into tonight.

[trojan949]

Jay Leno is a jerk. Conan didn't get high number of viewers because The Jay Leno Show is so bad that it even damage the news viewership - that's the reason why NBC moving him back to later hours.

[Sean]

I agree with Gregg, JASON, Nathan, Martin, and SG. That being said, this former Leno fan will be watching Letterman until Conan comes back.

[Paul]

You are all morons. Can't you understand the numbers? jay had 5 million viewers. Conan took over the show and the viewership went down to 2.8 million - a little over half of what Jay was drawing. Is that so hard to understand???

If I were giving you a dollar a day for years, and them I started giving you 55 cents a day you would not be very happy, and you'd want your dollar a day back.

That's exactly the situation NBC found themselves in. It has NOTHING to do with Jay being a 'snake' or not being 'the bigger man' - it's all dollars and cents. Jay brings in the money; Conan didn't - for whatever reason - doesn't even matter if you like one or the other better - the numbers tell the story. NBC is doing what they need to do to keep the business profitable - that's the whole point of business.

Think, people, THINK! It's really simple!!!

[The Bell]

If you're OK with comparing Conan's last show to a car wreck, then Jay Leno's degrading appearance on Oprah is the equivalent of a semi-tanker bursting into flames near a school and taking out several short yellow buses with it.

As far as this ex-viewer's concerned, Leno's toast.

[Ian]

Jay needs to keep his mouth shut and his head down. He's a sleazy, despicable businessman who stopped being funny years ago.

[Joseph]

Wow, really people? Leno averaged 5 million viewers a night on the Tonight Show. When he moved to 10pm, he still averaged 5 million viewers a night. Essentially, Leno was still #1 among the talk shows, except at 10pm those ratings were considered bad, and it was a poor lead-in for the local news at 11:00, and the people who watched Leno at 10:00 (or time shifted to watch him during Conan's show) were not adding to Conan's ratings. So if Leno was #1 at 11:35, and maintained the exact same numbers 90 minutes earlier, it means all his audience followed him. That's loyalty, people. And guess what? When he goes back to the Tonight Show, he will still bring in 5 million viewers a night, once again beating Letterman (and any show Conan might do on another network). The people who love Leno don't care about the perception that a lot of people WHO DON'T WATCH LENO IN THE FIRST PLACE have of him. They are glad he's coming back to the Tonight Show and will happily pick up where they left off.

Conan will do fine wherever he ends up. I think FOX would be a mistake, because he won't do much better than 3 million of so, and the FOX affiliates will revolt if the network twists their arms to take him (like the way NBC forced the affiliates to take Leno's 10pm show, only to see it backfire) and the numbers end up being similar to his Tonight Show numbers. Conan's best bet is to do a show on Comedy Central after the Daily Show/Colbert Report hour. There, his 2.5-3 million viewers a night would be a smash hit.

[Blue State Disgust]

Simply put, Conan was not funny as he used to be, open and shut. He and his crew didn't seem to fit LA, it was painful to watch and the ratings bombed. When the boat leaks, you can't blame the water!

Geez, why the Leno vilification? What the heck did he do other than be a team player for his NBC bosses? THEY pushed him out of the Tonight Show. THEY put him on at 10. THEY brought him back. All he did was say okay. What would you have done for those same millions of dollars?

Yes, Leno is funny, creative and was King of the 11:30 ratings. Conan failed badly and wasn't getting better. What do the cheap-shot flamers here want of him? He'd otherwise have gone to another network and blasted both a Feeble Conan and Creepy Dave out of their late night studio bunkers.

[Anon]

Why does this article read like a hatchet job on Conan. Between backhanded complements, Leno's character insults on the ratings to justify his own actions, and ratings numbers without context (how much of a dropoff to his lead in did Conan suffer? How did that compare to Leno's dropoff when he hosted the tonight show?), this isn't journalism, this is Leno fanboyism.

[Jim McNewman]

Its all about ratings and money. NBC tried to do an experiment and it failed. Conan had very low numbers on Tonight and the only correct move was to bring Leno back where he should have stayed all along. Conan is very funny and smart, so he will come back. Do not blame Jay Leno for any of this. This was upper management poor decision making and thats who created this mess. Leno is not to be blamed for taking his old job back. Anyone with an ounce of common sense would do the same. NBC execs do not love Jay or Conan, they only love numbers that add up to ratings share,,,bottom line.

[Dougzilla]

Both Leno and Conan are just not funny. How they ever got their gigs is a mystery to me. Conan doesn't even look pleasant and whines and interrupts his way through every interaction with a guest I've ever had the displeasure to surf across. I've never watched more than five minutes of either of them on any given night for the entire time they've been on. Letterman can get stale at times but I've watched him since 84 and he's a cut above . The heir apparent of all of them, and deservedly so, is Mr. Ferguson of the Late Late show. Class act and funny as hell. But Leno and Conan? They could fade away and I'd never miss them. Hope they do, but the networks always go with the devil they know versus the devil they don't, so I guess we're stuck with them until they drop dead. Oh well, one can dream.

[Anon E. Moose]

NBC forgets that the demographics are going to change soon. The current 18-34 demo that I'm in is getting older and much of Jay's baby-boomer demographic is starting to die off. NBC has lost my generation's support and I am quite sure this will go down as one of the worst decisions made by a TV network. So good luck with that NBC, I sure won't be watching.

[JuliusCaesar108]

I'm not loyal to either camp, for Jay Leno or Conan, since I don't watch either. However, while I think it's sad what happened to Conan, the blame doesn't belong to Leno. NBC made some baaaad decisions. If people want to play the blame game, fingers should be pointed toward the network. In the business world, you survive by taking advantage of the best outcome possible.

To expect for Jay to leave the network seems hypocritical. No one initially pointed fingers for Leno to take the 10 o'clock seat, while Conan finally got The Tonight Show. But ever since the fiasco with the ratings, where people didn't watch him, people now say Leno should have left in the first place. So it's bad to have Conan leave the network, but it isn't bad to expect Leno to have left in the first place?

It seems to me like people are rooting for Conan because 1) he's young, 2) his "earned" promotion lost him his place on the network, and 3) he didn't get support from the older comedian who wasn't funny.

[Mister Obvious]

No Big Chin for Leno. That Oprah interview was sickening. Viva Conando!

[copterdriver]

God I miss Johnny Carson. I winced every time I watched Leno fawn over celebrities and ask them to sing his CD or whatever. Save it for the dressing room. Carson had a class act and honestly I think Conan is closer to that persona.

The high fiveing and BS at the beginning is good for the audience but does absolutely nothing for the viewer, save that for after the show and have a meet and greet.

True comic genius is rare especially with a dash of class, which Carson had. Personally I think Craig Ferguson is funnier than both Leno and Conan put together.

What I miss the most was Carson's comedy bits.... usually so funny he couldn"t keep a straight face.