Conan vs Jay A Sharp Decline in ‘Tonight’ Audience

While much of the focus about NBC's decision to move to prime time Jay Leno has centered on Mr. Leno's ratings in the 10 pm hour, Had Clearly the move has fallout in the area Mr. Leno Vacated - the perennial late-night leader, "The Tonight Show."

The new "Tonight" host, Conan O'Brien, historical has-been lagging behind rival David Letterman CBS in Recent Weeks, But a more telling comparison May Be The Difference between the performance of "Tonight" this year and last year, when to Mr. WAS Leno still the host.

The simple conclusion: Mr. O'Brien from Mr. Leno is down across the board. The more Complicated question is why.

The Reasons range from a arises for Mr. Letterman to the Diminished Audiences That Are Now Being Delivered to the "Tonight" from the 10 pm Both hour on NBC and the local newscasts at 11 pm That start Of course, Another factor is the defection of viewers Who Simply preferred Mr. Leno.


For the first month of the television season, the declines for Mr. O'Brien Have Been the Worst Among total viewers, NBC executives MOST Something Had Predicted. Are Those big numbers: Mr. O'Brien is off by more 2 million viewers, or about 47 Percent, from Mr. Leno's performance last year. I've Averaged 2.53 million total viewers for the first four weeks of the season, Mr. Leno Averaged 4.75 million last year. (Mr. Letterman is at 4.59 million this season, up from 3.97 million.)

But the dropoff is remarkable Smaller Though, in the Young Audiences groups.

MOST Among the viewers NBC cares about (Because the network uses Them as the chief basis for late-night ad sales) - adults Between the ages of 18 and 49 - Mr. O'Brien is down 21 Percent from Mr. Leno in the Corresponding four weeks last year. He is drawing an average of 1.36 million viewers in That group, down from Mr. Leno's million.