Conan falls, Leno still #1

[WeAreTheBorg]

Level 2 Diagnostic wrote:

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And Conan got 4 million viewers on his first night, so clearly there are enough people who know how to find TBS on the dial. I think what happened is that a lot of people tuned in because of the hype, saw that Conan's show was pretty much an exact clone of his Tonight Show that they never watched, and never bothered to tune in again.

It's actually very different than his Tonight Show... it's somewhat similar to Late Night but different than that as well, given that they have not been allowed to re-use a single comedy bit from those shows. Furthermore, he has brought more of the casual loose energy that he had on his live tour into the show, with much more audience interaction and improvisation.

Honestly, to say it's a clone of his Tonight Show is pretty absurd... they are about as disparate as any two talk shows with the same host could possibly be.

The reason the ratings aren't amazing is because his demographic is the internet generation. You'll notice that the Daily Show is only slightly better and yet it's a cultural phenomenon that has real hold on the internet generation. That shows that TV ratings aren't the real measuring stick of success for shows aimed at that audience.

They knew that coming in as well because from day one they posted full episodes on the website the next day.

I am a good microcosm of this. I'm a huge fan of Conan but I just rarely watch TV these days, what shows I do watch I watch through the internet. And it doesn't help that they decided to pit it directly against Stewart and Colbert, who have a solid hold on the thin slice of pie of that demographic that actually watch TV the traditional way. At the end of the day, I watched on TV the first week or so, and since then I've watched only 2 episodes. But it has nothing to do with my opinion of him or the show, he's my favourite and I watch online when I have time.

So they knew what they were getting into, make no mistake, and these results are no big deal.

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

WeAreTheBorg wrote:

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No one ever expected he would beat Leno on TBS. Or the Daily Show, for that matter. This isn't especially noteworthy

Sorry, but that's not entirely true:

In its outreach to ad buyers, Turner guaranteed that Mr. O'Brien's ratings among audiences aged 18 to 49 would match those of Mr. Letterman and run about 15% below those of Mr. Leno, according to a person familiar with the company's offer to advertisers. Turner now believes Mr. O'Brien's 18-to-49 ratings could be just 10% below those of Mr. Leno, this person said.

Clearly, "the same ratings as The Colbert Report" is not what TBS was hoping for, and I'm sure they're paying Conan a lot more than Comedy Central pays Colbert.

[WeAreTheBorg]

I'd be interested to see what the 18-29 ratings are. 18 to 49 is a crazy range.

[Owain Taggart]

I think it only shows that while Leno is on a major network that everyone can get, that Conan is on a network that not everyone does get, so I don't think the comparisons are fair in terms of ratings because one will get more exposure no matter what. Conan's viewerbase will always be more fragmented, in that those who watch it, don't necessarily watch it on TBS, like Conan being on the Comedy Network in Canada for instance, and probably not counting towards the overall ratings.

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

Owain Taggart wrote:

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I think it only shows that while Leno is on a major network that everyone can get, that Conan is on a network that not everyone does get, so I don't think the comparisons are fair in terms of ratings because one will get more exposure no matter what.

Well, according to this, TBS is in 101 million households, which is about 87% of all US TV households. This really isn't enough to account for the differences between Leno's ratings and Conan's ratings.

Also, Cartoon Network/Adult Swim is in 85% of US TV households, less than TBS, but it usually beats Leno in the key demo (it got a 1.1 last week vs Leno's 1.0).

[J. Allen]

You realize of course that Conan's show hasn't been on long enough to establish a trend, right? Keeping in mind that he's had the Conan show for a few months, and that Jay has been host of the Tonight Show for 17 years? Plus, according to these charts (Link), Conan's doing pretty good, and that they're pretty much running in the same pack.

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

Interesting that you chose a chart from 4 weeks ago, that just happens to be from the week right before Conan's ratings bottomed out at 0.4 when he went into repeats.

Here's a more up to date chart, and if you look at the original post, you can see that Conan stays at 0.6 the week following this.

[Davros]

What we need is a return of Fernwood Tonight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kVKUpJ8vto

[Owain Taggart]

Level 2 Diagnostic wrote:

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Well, according to this, TBS is in 101 million households, which is about 87% of all US TV households. This really isn't enough to account for the differences between Leno's ratings and Conan's ratings.

Also, Cartoon Network/Adult Swim is in 85% of US TV households, less than TBS, but it usually beats Leno in the key demo (it got a 1.1 last week vs Leno's 1.0).

Thanks, you just proved my point. It's a cable channel, in US households. As an example, NBC and other major networks are available elsewhere, like Canada. TBS isn't, so by default it isn't going to get as wide a coverage as NBC. The demographic is smaller because of the smaller outreach, therefore it will get less ratings. And that's what makes it so hard to compare a cable network show against a major network show. The odds are against it.

Not sure what Cartoon Network has to do with this.

[J. Allen]

Level 2 Diagnostic wrote:

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Interesting that you chose a chart from 4 weeks ago, that just happens to be from the week right before Conan's ratings bottomed out at 0.4 when he went into repeats.

Here's a more up to date chart, and if you look at the original post, you can see that Conan stays at 0.6 the week following this.

Eh, nothing "interesting" about it. It's called "hey, a fuckin' chart, I think I'll use it as an example." You may ascribe whatever motives you like, but believe me when I say, I don't give the heartiest of fucks where people think Leno should be or Conan should be, I like watching Conan because he's fun to watch. Anything else is irrelevant. Seriously, "Oh teh noes, Conan isn't #1! My life is over!". I don't give a good goddamn if he's dead last, he's fun. The lower the ratings, the more he can get away with, so bring it.

[the G-man]

J. Allen wrote:

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I don't give a good goddamn if he's dead last, he's fun. The lower the ratings, the more he can get away with, so bring it.

You've never heard of something called "cancellation," have you?

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

Owain Taggart wrote:

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The demographic is smaller because of the smaller outreach, therefore it will get less ratings. And that's what makes it so hard to compare a cable network show against a major network show. The odds are against it.

Not sure what Cartoon Network has to do with this.

My point was that Adult Swim (which airs on Cartoon Network) regularly beats Jay Leno, even though not everybody has Cartoon Network. So the idea that a cable network can't compete or can't be compared with a broadcast network is obviously false.

Going by the comments in this thread, you'd think TBS was some tiny, niche network, but it's in 101 million homes. There are more than enough people with TBS to blow Leno out of the water at 11:30.

[J. Allen]

the G-man wrote:

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You've never heard of something called "cancellation," have you?

TBS isn't going to cancel Conan. For cable, he brings in good enough numbers, and even if they drop, Conan is brand recognition. They've tied him into their own, and so he's not going anywhere anytime soon.

[Data Holmes]

I wonder how much the second nightly showing, the net rebroadcast on teamcoco.com, and dvr numbers are effecting these ratings.

[Mr Light]

I'm a total CoCo nut now and I only watch it on the internet, usually several days after it aired.