Leno, the new-old
king of late night

Dominates the competition on his first three days back

By Diego Vasquez
Mar 5, 2010

Is it too early to declare Jay Leno the new king of late night?

NBC famously flubbed by giving Conan O'Brien that distinction a week into his disastrous seven-month stint at "The Tonight Show," when viewers were still sampling amid the late-night shakeup.

The network later admitted that the title had been too hasty, months before canning O'Brien altogether.

But three nights into Leno's return to "Tonight," he's thoroughly dominating the competition and is thus far showing minor night-to-night ratings declines, unlike O'Brien, whose numbers plummeted almost immediately.

On Wednesday night, "Tonight" averaged a 1.5 adults 18-49 rating, bettering CBS's "Late Night with David Letterman" (1.0) and ABC's "Nightline" (0.9) by more than 50 percent, according to Nielsen data.

That was down a tad, 6 percent, from the 1.6 rating Leno earned his first two nights back on the job, just 0.1 rating points, suggesting that most of the viewers for "Tonight" are in it for more than just the curious first nights.

Among total viewers, "Tonight" averaged 5.4 million, with "Late Show" second at 3.7 million and "Nightline" third at 3.4 million, both down a bit from their season averages.

"Tonight" was off from 6.6 million viewers Monday night and 5.8 million Tuesday, but Leno was still slightly above his 2008-'09 season average of 5.2 million.

There will be many, many weeks to parse the winner of this latest late-night battle, but NBC has to be encouraged by the early results.

Despite some speculation that Leno's popularity had been hurt by the whole O'Brien debacle, it seems the reputation issue was more of a media construction than anything else. While some rabid "Coco" fans did hijack a "Tonight" forum with pictures of O'Brien, the backlash has otherwise been all but nonexistent.

Even Letterman has curbed his anti-Leno fervor, on such evident display in January, when the NBC fiasco was going down.

***

In dayparts for the week ended Feb. 28, ABC’s “Nightline” led the week in late night with 3.3 million total viewers, followed by CBS’s “The Late Show with David Letterman” with 3.0 million. In late late night, CBS’s “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” and ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” each averaged 1.5 million viewers. Among 18-49s, “Nightline” averaged a 0.9, with “Late Show” at a 0.8. In late late night, “Late Late Show” and “Kimmel” each averaged a 0.5. All NBC shows were preempted by Olympic coverage, and Monday’s “Kimmel” was an encore.

NBC’s “Meet the Press” was the most-watched Sunday morning show on Feb. 28 with 3.66 million tuning in, followed by CBS’s “Face the Nation” with 2.96 million, ABC’s “This Week” with 2.41 million and “Fox News Sunday” with 1.30 million. Among the 25-54 demographic, NBC and CBS averaged a 0.8 rating, with ABC at 0.6 and Fox at 0.4.

In morning shows, NBC’s “Today” was first for the week with 6.28 million total viewers, followed by ABC’s “Good Morning America” with 4.61 million and CBS’s “The Early Show” at 2.72 million. “Today” averaged a 4.7 household rating and a 17 share, with “Good Morning America” at 3.4/12 and “Early Show” at 2.0/7.

In evening network news, NBC’s “Nightly News with Brian Williams” was first with 11.12 million total viewers and a 2.7 rating among adults 25-54. ABC’s “World News with Diane Sawyer” averaged 8.13 million viewers and a 1.9 rating, followed by CBS’s “Evening News with Katie Couric” with 6.47 million and a 1.6 rating.

In daytime, CBS was first for the week with 3.84 million total viewers, followed by NBC with 3.22 million and ABC with 3.02 million. Among 18-49s, NBC and ABC each posted a 1.3 average rating, while CBS averaged a 1.1.

SUNDAY MORNING SHOW RATINGS Week ending Feb. 28, 2010 Sunday averages
Program	Network	Households
Program	Network	Rtg%	Shr	Adults 25-54	Total viewers (millions)
Meet the Press	NBC	2.7	7	0.8	3.657
Face the Nation	CBS	2.1	6	0.8	2.962
This Week	ABC	1.7	5	0.6	2.409
News Sunday	Fox	0.9	2	0.4	1.297
Source: Nielsen

LATE-NIGHT RATINGS* Week Ending Feb. 28, 2009 Five-day averages
Program	Network	People 2+	Adults 18-49
Program	Network	Total viewers (millions)	Rtg%
Nightline	ABC	3.3	0.9
Late Show with David Letterman	CBS	3.0	0.8
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson	CBS	1.5	0.5
Jimmy Kimmel Live	ABC	1.5	0.5
Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien	NBC	-	-
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon	NBC	-	-
Last Call with Carson Daly	NBC	-	-
* All NBC shows were preempted by the Olympics. Monday's "Kimmel" was an encore. Source: Nielsen

MORNING SHOW RATINGS Week Ending Feb. 28, 2009 Five-day averages
Program	Network	Households		People 2+
Program	Network	Rtg%	Shr	Total viewers (millions)
Today	NBC	4.7	17	6.280
Good Morning America	ABC	3.4	12	4.610
Early Show	CBS	2.0	7	2.720
Source: Nielsen

DAYTIME RATINGS Week Ending Feb. 28, 2009 Five-day averages
	Total viewers (millions)	Women 18-49
Network	(millions)	Rtg%
CBS	3.84	1.1
NBC	3.22	1.3
ABC	3.02	1.3
Source: Nielsen

EVENING NETWORK NEWS RATINGS Week Ending Feb. 28, 2009 Five-day averages
Program	Network	25-54s	People 2+
Program	Network	Rtg%	Total viewers (millions)
NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams	NBC	2.7	11.117
ABC World News with Diane Sawyer	ABC	1.9	8.126
CBS Evening News with Katie Couric	CBS	1.6	6.469
Source: Nielsen

SYNDICATION Ranked on Households Week Ending Feb. 21, 2009
#	PROGRAMS	Syndicator	Households
#	PROGRAMS	Syndicator	US Rtg%	(000)
1	WHEEL OF FORTUNE	CTD	7.2	8292
2	JEOPARDY	CTD	6.2	7151
3	TWO-HALF MEN-SYN (AT)	WB	5.5	6292
4	JUDGE JUDY (AT)	CTD	4.7	5343
5	OPRAH WINFREY SHOW	CTD	4.6	5335
6	ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT(AT)	CTD	4.4	5043
7	WHEEL OF FORTUNE WKND	CTD	3.8	4402
8	FAMILY GUY-MF-SYN (AT)	2/T	3.5	3984
9	INSIDE EDITION (AT)	CTD	3.2	3621
9	CSI NEW YORK-SYN(AT)	CTD	3.2	3622
11	LAW & ORDER:CI-WKL (AT)	NBU	3.1	3565
11	OFFICE-SYN (AT)	NBU	3.1	3609
13	DR. PHIL SHOW (AT)	CTD	2.8	3197
13	GEORGE LOPEZ (AT)	WB	2.8	3175
15	SEINFELD (AT)	SPT	2.7	3155
15	EVRY LVS RAYMOND-SYN(AT)	CTD	2.7	3087
15	MILLIONAIRE (AT)	DAD	2.7	3074
18	LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY	DAD	2.6	3004
18	TWO-HALF MEN WKND B (AT)	WB	2.6	3015
20	SEINFELD-WKND (AT)	SPT	2.5	2878
21	DR. OZ SHOW (AT)	SPT	2.4	2758
21	KING OF THE HILL-SYN(AT)	2/T	2.4	2773
21	ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT WKD	CTD	2.4	2742
21	ACCESS HOLLYWOOD (AT)	NBU	2.4	2780
25	ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW	WB	2.3	2624
Source: Nielsen