Viewers and critics
split over 'Leno'
75 percent of viewers give his show high grade
By Diego Vasquez
Sep 25, 2009
The knock on Jay Leno, if you can call it one, has always been that while viewers love him, his appeal seems to escape critics.
During Leno's long tenure at "The Tonight Show," he trailed CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman" in only one area, critical acclaim, while trouncing his gap-toothed rival in every other demographic.
Now the same thing seems to be happening for "The Jay Leno Show," Leno's newly launched weeknight strip show, which was savaged by critics (apparently hoping for something less "Tonight" derivative) but opened to an average 18.4 million total viewers last week.
Though the vast majority of viewers who watched the program gave it a favorable grade, it was savaged by critics, according to a new report from Empower MediaMarketing.
The study found that 74 percent of those polled gave "Leno" a grade of A or B for his premiere-week performance.
"While Leno scored big in the ratings and public opinion for his premiere, mainstream media critics were not so kind," notes the study. "Reviews in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and USA Today all panned the show, many calling it a rehashed version of Leno’s 'The Tonight Show.'"
Twitter users' opinions hew closer to critics than the general public. Empower reviewed a sample of 500 tweets mentioning "Leno" and found that three-quarters of reviews were negative.
A large percentage of the "Leno"-themed tweets, 45 percent, focused on Leno's first-week guests, including Kanye West and Halle Berry.
Whether "Leno" is a critical hit or bust matters little to NBC. What does matter to the network is that awareness of the show, and thus potential viewership, is widespread, and on that front it has succeeded.
Sixty-nine percent of those polled were aware of Leno's move to primetime, according to the study.
Through three outings this week, "Leno" has placed third in the 10 p.m. timeslot among adults 18-49 each night, but he's finished above his average for "Tonight" last season, the performance benchmark NBC has set for the show.
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