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Uh-oh, it's the picture of Jay Leno looking frustrated. You know what that means, people...
Yesterday we brought you the news that Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" was barely beating David Letterman's "Late Show" in the ratings. This, after Jay "Comedy" Leno has been back on the air for just 8 days. Well, guess what the ratings look like today? If you guessed "Letterman wins by a small margin", you get absolutely no prize. Let's take a closer look at the numbers below, my gentle Examiner readers...
Yes, yes, there's a big portion of the population that loves falling asleep to Jay Leno's "Tonight Show". And, yes, Conan wasn't putting up the ratings that Leno ever did when he was at the helm. But all this anti-Leno sentiment that's been going around lately has had repercussions, and we're starting to see them settle in for the first time.
Yesterday, we reported that "The Tonight Show" had led "The Late Show" in the ratings by just .2 of a ratings share. Today, we have the news that Letterman's "Late Show" is leading Leno's "Tonight Show" by the same margin. Here's what they're saying about the two shows over at TV By The Numbers, the awesome TV ratings site you'd be reading if you really cared about this stuff:
“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.
Just as a point of comparison, let's take a look at how things looked yesterday:
“The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” (3.5/9 in metered-market households) led the time period over CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman” (3.2/8) and ABC’s “Nightline (3.1/8) and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (1.5/5) in Nielsen’s 56 metered markets.
But wait, that's not the end of the story. The figures above are based on "early metered market numbers". There's another way of looking at this whole thing-- the local People Meters, another way of compiling ratings data-- and it's saying that "The Tonight Show" actually led Letterman by a similarly small margin:
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).
So...what's the bottom line? That Leno and Letterman are running neck-and-neck right now. Back when Leno was originally in charge of the "Tonight Show" desk, he was regularly slaughtering Letterman in the ratings. It wasn't like Dave was pulling down UPN numbers, but it certainly wasn't this close. These days, Leno's having to fight a lot harder to stay ahead in the ratings. And, with those numbers dropping every day, it's likely that we'll see Letterman at the top of the heap by the end of this week.
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Pretty snazzy news for those that aren't fans of Leno. Or NBC. Or anyone involved with the decision to remove Conan O'Brien from his "Tonight Show" spot. Stay tuned for more on this situation as it develops. Expect a big recap of how things looked in the latenight landscape sometime later this week. While you're waiting on that to arrive, feel free to check out these other recent Comedy Examiner articles:
FUNNY VIDEO: BOB BARKER GETS CREEPY ON "THE PRICE IS RIGHT" (WITH VIDEO)-- in which Bob Barker acts like a total creeper with virtually every female contestant that's ever appeared on the world's best gameshow. Check it out.
BREAKING NEWS: 80's TEEN-COMEDY STAR COREY HAIM FOUND DEAD OF APPARENT DRUG OVERDOSE-- in which the totally expected happens.
FUNNY VIDEO: INTERNET SENSATION "EPIC BEARD MAN" GETS THE "MIKE TYSON'S PUNCH-OUT" TREATMENT-- in which a viral video gets edited to look like a game you played when you were 11, and it's completely awesome.
SOURCES SAY JOHN KRASINSKI IS "A LOCK" FOR LEAD ROLE IN "CAPTAIN AMERICA"-- in which Jim from "The Office" might end up putting on some spandex and fighting Nat-sees. Good times, if you think he's right for the role.
(photo: top-- boston.com, bottom-- myspace.com)
Comments
Actually Letterman won yesterday in the ratings that matter (18-49).
Doesn't surprise me.
Good. I hate Leno and NBC now.
Comcast must love their purchase! Once Conan comes back, it'll raise the ill sentiment again and kill Jay off for good!
Aw freaggin sweet. Conebone will take his rightful place on the thrown, as he should.
Your article is confusing. I quote, "If you guessed "Letterman wins by a small margin", you get absolutely no prize." You then go on to say, "Yesterday, we reported that "The Tonight Show" had led "The Late Show" in the ratings by just .2 of a ratings share. Today, we have the news that Letterman's "Late Show" is leading Leno's "Tonight Show" by the same margin." So, when Leno is leading, it is "just by .2 of a ratings share", but when Letterman is winning by the same margin, that margin is no longer small, its large? You use the words Letterman leading Leno, then you say neck and neck. Which is it? Before the Conan-Leno fiasco, no one watched Conan. Why all of a sudden do people care so much about him now? Why did everyone say that Conan didn't have long enough to improve his ratings, but now that Leno is back, Leno is expected to be back where he was in May 2009?
Leno is not funny and a greedy jerk even before this coco thing.
All the "toldja so" Joe's should really pipe down for about six months, which is about how long it will take for things to settle down to an accurate comparison.
In fact, the argument can be made that Leno's performing in a spectacular fashion since he's having to carry the burden of people who blame him for Conan's demise switching to Letterman.
As for Team CoCo...you still bring too little, too late to the party. If you'd simply watched your hero when he was on the air instead of bellyachin' about it all after the fact...he'd still be hosting The Tonight Show.
Yes Jays ratings have dropped from before the fiasco but they are still nearly twice what conan averaged. Trust me NBC is not sweating this even a close second is better than what they had.
Conan is way funnier. Jay is lame. The right thing for him to do would have been to refure the NBC offer and step aside. How would he have like it if they have done that to him when he bagan to host the Tonight Show. Man, those execs at NBC are morons. They doomed the whole thing to failure as soon as they decided to put Jay Leno on at 10. It was bad for both shows. It was stupid. Can't wait for CONAN to come back! He's king!
Well, it's a week later, and Leno beat Letterman by 17 percent last night in overall viewers, and by 15 percent in the 18-49 demographic. Sorry there Mr. Wampler, but your prediction didn't pan out.
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