Jay Leno’s Tonight Show Returns to Number 1
By Krystal Clark
America has spoken. Even though a huge cloud of negative energy surrounded Jay Leno’s return to “The Tonight Show,” he’s managed to prevail. Remember when everyone said they were through with him after the underhanded way he and NBC handled Conan O’Brien? I guess those folks changed their tune, because Leno is back at number one leaving David Letterman, “Nightline,” and Jimmy Kimmel in the dust.
According to EW, Leno has managed to reclaim the top spot in the realm of late night television after being back on “The Tonight Show” for less than two weeks. For the week ending in March 5th, the show beat out the competition for the demographic of adults 18-49 and total viewers.
According to the final numbers released by NBC, “The Tonight Show” “averaged 1.94 million adults in the 18-49 demo and 5.58 million total viewers; Letterman, in comparison, averaged 1.30 million adults and 3.66 million total viewers. Leno also outranked Letterman among adults 18-34.”
This is the first time the show has beaten Letterman in the ratings since its return from hiatus. During O’Brien’s run, Letterman consistently topped the 11:30 PM time slot. I’ll admit that Leno has had a decent line up of guests over the past week so I’m not surprised that people tuned in, but who knew he would shoot back to number 1 so fast? What happened to all those people who said they weren’t interested in the show once he returned?
Have you been watching The Tonight Show With Jay Leno? Why do you think it’s doing so well in the ratings?
Thursday, March 11, 2010 5:03PM
I’m not watching him.
Friday, March 12, 2010 1:23AM
Beacause my parents don't know whats funny.
Friday, March 12, 2010 1:52AM
Yeah, you're talking about last week's ratings. This week he was actually beat by Letterman, and was getting around the same numbers as Conan did during the time he had Leno as a lead in.
Friday, March 12, 2010 2:41AM
Because no matter what a group of young people on the internet say (myself being 25), the average american doesn't care what happened in late night and a large amount wanted to see Jay back on the tonight show. People who support Conan and are against Jay can say what they want about why Conan's show didn't work but numbers talk. 2 million people stopped watching late night tv when Leno left…they didn't watch something else they just turn off their tv's . Leno was pulling in around 2 million more viewers a night to his Jay Leno show then Conan was with the tonight show- 2 million people were lead into Conan's show but left, but because of the prime time slot it was deemed a failure….and no one was paying attention to the fact that for the first time in 60 years the tonight show was losing money. Jay has poor lead ins now and he is still pulling in the viewers….
Friday, March 12, 2010 3:33AM
jay leno is for old people. people who will die in a few years. so he will lose his audience soon. NBC doesn't look towards their future because they're so concentrated with their greediness of the present. I will never watch Leno. I hope Chuck Norris kicks his @ss.
Friday, March 12, 2010 3:49AM
Uh pretty much Jay Leno sucks, anyone who likes Jay Leno is stupid, no matter what they say. I always tuned into Letterman when Jay was on, when Conan took over, it was sooooo much better, we all miss Conan, Jay is a giant chinned loser, always has been always will.
Friday, March 12, 2010 3:52AM
you have no idea what your talking about
Friday, March 12, 2010 4:38AM
the numbers are posted by nbc, who can trust that?
Friday, March 12, 2010 4:38AM
I am not watching either
Friday, March 12, 2010 8:43AM
conan was horrible. alot of ppl are supporting him because its the "cool" thing to do. where were they when he was on the air? they sure werent watching him. those that are saying it was because of Jays poor lead in.. you realize jay was off the air for months and conan had regular programming as lead ins. guess what? his ratings still sucked…
Friday, March 12, 2010 9:21AM
conan didn't suck in that time slot, he sucked with that lead in. if jay just went away like he promised, none of this would be a problem. but his and NBC's greed took over and forced someone genuinely funny out of a job. NBC can forge the numbers too.
Friday, March 12, 2010 3:17PM
He beat Letterman because it was his first week back and attracted alot of curiosity viewers like myself who otherwise never would have watched. These numbers wont mean anything until 2, 3 months time.
Friday, March 12, 2010 3:26PM
The way this article makes it sound ("left his competition in the dust…"), you'd think that Leno came out and slaughtered the combined ratings of all of his opposition with a 6.0.
In fact, he came back a) with a lower number that Conan started with as TS host and
b) losing to Letterman on Night 7, about where Conan was at that point.
"Who knew he would shoot to #1 so fast?": EVERYONE! Even the critics knew the first week would be the "oh, I'm curious, Jay's back, let's see if he has anything to say about the controversy, etc."
No one doubted Jay would take week one…but now he's in a dogfight in Week 2. It's going to take a few months to see how this settles in. If it stays a dogfight, well, remember: Jay didn't get into ratings dogfights with Dave for most of the 2000s….
Friday, March 12, 2010 4:34PM
What a skewed "article." To say that Letterman was regularly beating Conan on the Tonight Show is to ignore Conan's last week, when he dominated the ratings. But then you base the first week of Leno's return, also a spectacle like Conan's last week, and use that as the basis to declare that Leno's No. 1.
Who knew he would shoot back to No. 1? Everyone. We all knew Leno would be on top for a while, as the curious tuned in to see what he was doing. Now, as they find out he's still the same hack, and is too lazy to innovate or evolve whatsoever, they're turning back to Letterman.
What a selective world view you live in, Krystal Clark.
Friday, March 12, 2010 5:18PM
He's doing well in the ratings for the same reason he's always been. Leno was always #1, always beating out Letterman. And as for Kimmel, well, he's just not a worthy adversary.
Friday, March 12, 2010 5:31PM
Conan sucked! He wasn't funny and that's why he paid him to go away. He looks weird and his comedy is so immature! No wonder nobody watched! Go JAY! Letterman looks like some pervert…I never watched him ever!!!
Saturday, March 13, 2010 4:34AM
He's got good numbers because of the controversy and it's the first two weeks. Hopefully he will fall on his face, or chin as it were.
Saturday, March 13, 2010 11:08PM
which i'm guessing when ALL old people die…does that mean there will no longer be old people…you mean i will always be 28…..wait a minute if it take 20 years for all the old people to die…i'll be 48…i'll be getting old…..asian dude….grab a calculator…a nd tell me if it takes 40-50 years for the old people are we going to be still young…..loosseerrrrr
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 6:59AM
Jay is a thief… I could care less if he has 10 million ppl watching him, he blows, steals all his bits
and anyone who likes him is lost.
Funny how the reason NBC put this peace of garbage back in this time slot was cuz of the local news bitching when it was Jays crappy show that stunk up their ratings.
So to all the Jay lovers enjoy your crappy show that even Kevin whats his name is leaving cuz he actually has some sort of dignity and doesn't want to be associated with a soulless robot.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010 11:09AM
I am not even sure why Conan is still talked about. He destroyed his own tenure at the Tonight Show. He could not draw the numbers and regardless of whether Leno was to leave NBC, Conan would not have lasted much longer. His ratings were one half of what Leno's were on the Tonight Show (approximately 5 million viewers for Leno and 2.5 million for Conan). Conan was handed a show that dominated the ratings for 16 years and within a month he had the show in the gutter. It is business; not Leno's conspiracy. Leno now is beating Letterman in key demographics, although it is clear some of his support has eroded but it is only a matter of time before he rebuilds the brand Conan damaged in 7 months. This is about money so taking this good v. evil approach is silly. NBC does not have a lot of hit shows so if they can have Leno at #1 at 11:30 rather than Conan lagging behind, what choice should they have made? How long should they have waited for Conan to pull in decent numbers? Time to move on…Jay has a right to work in the best possible job he can get as we all do. How can you fault someone for wanting to continue with something they worked at for so many years, especially when it was a #1 program?
Wednesday, March 17, 2010 11:12AM
Bitter much, Roger? Yeah, Kevin is leaving after all these years because he doesn't want to be associated with the show for your completely lack of logic reasoning…get a brain, dude. You clearly have no concept of business. Just curious, but how are people 'lost' because they like something that you don't like? You are definitely lost in your bitterness.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010 5:02AM
jays audience will die off… not litterally though. jay is so predictable and his jokes could be told by anyone and have the same effect. he brings no personality.
Friday, April 16, 2010 3:10AM
Some of these comments about the "old people" are bizarre because Jay Leno is winning the ratings race with the younger audiences as this very article states…and Conan was not – Letterman was.