Conan's "Tonight Show" Audience A Decade Younger Than Leno's

New York Times:

In Mr. O'Brien's first month as host, the median age of "Tonight Show" viewers has fallen by a decade -- to 45 from 55, a startling shift in such a short time. This audience composition means advertisers can now address almost exclusively young viewers on "Tonight," and NBC is already contemplating a shift in how it sells the show.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[adsandiego]

conan's humor is awkward and childish - very appealing to the college freshman-soph crowd ...

[maquignon]

I agree, Conan's "humor" appeals to a younger demographic, the 11-13 group

[kapshaw]

Conan's viewers are younger because Leno's fans are all watching Lettermen then going to Jimmy Fallon and ignoring him altogether. The best two months on late night TV were when he wasn't on the air at all.

[yankees]

Why would anybody be surprised with this useless information but advertisers.

[zepfan81]

Umm....duh! I bet MTV's audience is younger than VH1. You know how I know? COMMON SENSE!

[sufi66]

This issue of demographics is about what sells advertising which pays the salaries of the TV people. It has become the only issue.

Carson (remember him?) was more about his generation speaking to that same generation, like when JFK was elected.

Quality was at least as important as who paid the bills. It was a less cynical time and a lot more fun in many ways.

[TrooAmerican]

Conan's humor is often childish and moronic. Which appeals to the younger crowd moreso than the elders.
But thats ok. The elders are currently getting much closer to death from cancer, diabetes, prescription addiction, heart disease, etc. So Jay's demographic is on its way out the door anyway.

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

Conan should be thankful for the dumbed down generation.... they'll keep him alive.

[mredder4]

Sorry, but this is just not true. It was Jay Leno who's comedy was "dumbed down". Just go back and listen to any of his monologues.

What's that? Another Bill Clinton joke? Brilliant, Jay, truly groundbreaking! Only a decade past the expiration date.

While Conan may not be hitting at current events and politics the same way that Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert does, O'Brien's version of comedy is much younger, MUCH smarter, and a better fit for people of my generation who are perceived by Baby Boomers to be slackers when we're better informed about more issues than any generation in history.

But I sure can't wait for Jay Leno to bring back the live television commercial when his new show debuts. Nothing says "cutting edge" from a comedian than shilling detergents between the monologue and the first guest! Am I right?

[KT8711]

Thank you! I am so sick of people calling my generation moronic, infantile or slackers! The truth of the matter is, we are better informed and educated than previous generations. And these older people should be nice to us, because we're the ones that get to pick their nursing homes :)

Furthermore, the average age of a Conan viewer is 45. Not 17, not 26. It's 45. Which means while there are plenty of younger people watching the show, there are still tons of older and middle-aged people watching it. My parents are 53 and 55, and they love Conan.

It's really ridiculous when people say that Conan's humor is dumbed-down. No actually, his humor is absurdist. I guess Jay Leno doing O.J. murder trial jokes 15 years after the fact, is some kind of gold standard in comedy that can't be touched.

[Texas4Obama]

I am in my 40s and I do not care for Conan.
I prefer Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, and Craig Ferguson.
Conan is sorta a deeb - he looks too much like a leprechaun ;)

[KataVideo]

I really liked Conan, even the first couple of years when everyone else said he sucked! But he's kind of bland now. Perhaps because of smarter hosts such as Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, and Craig Ferguson.. they stand for something. Conan's attempts at topical humor fall flat.

[javajava]

I am 53 and trust me Conan is lame to me too. Dude's milquetoast. All the latenights play to the middle, some to the right, most a little left but they really ain't saying nothing worth listening to.

[OverIt]

Why are my comments not appearing?

[OverIt]

The demo is younger because the old people are turning to Letterman or just turning off the TV generally.

I am personally a fan of Conan's and have watched him for years but I've been worried in watching him the past few weeks that he might be in trouble with the usual 11:30/post-news crowd. Way too goofy and risque for that set.

I cringed during the recent segment with Cirque du Soleil's Zumanity. Though it was beautiful and intoxicating, I could also imagine the shock and disgust of many loyal Tonight Show viewers at the provocative display.

At a time when young people are distracted by the internet and other forms of entertainment, I don't think Conan can afford to court younger viewers at the cost of shedding a huge segment of the Tonight Show's loyal audience.

[OverIt]

Hey Mods, can you send me a private email message about why so many of my messages aren't showing up? Despite the fact that they contain no profanity or other objectionable language.

[Ponderus]

Good luck with that. They scrub because they can scrub, and everybody's noticed it lately, and they're killing the site.

[Ponderus]

Goodluckwi­ththat.The­yscrubbeca­usetheycan­scrub,ande­verybody's­noticeditl­ately,andt­hey'rekill­ing thesite.

[GoodFeathers]

You failed to say "MR. Gorbachev tear down this wall".

[KT8711]

When it comes to total viewers for the week, TVByTheNumbers said that Nightline won (not surprisingly with Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett's deaths dominating the news), Conan came in 2nd, and Dave came in 3rd.

Conan had the best 18-49 demographic, followed surprisingly by Nightline, with Dave in 3rd again.

The ratings released this Thursday for the June 29th-July 3rd period will be irrelevant, because most late night shows were in reruns last week.

[Aslanspal]

He needs to improve his quest line up...he is having Howie Mandel on! Howie Mandel???!!! as a headliner come on ....Howie is not funny.

My line up for him....Megan Fox...she has been a great guest
Jennifer Aniston would ge good she is funny
Carrie Underwood ..talented
Larry David
Harland Williams...off the wall funny

but flippin Howie Mandel come on!

[KT8711]

He had Larry David on a few weeks ago.

And while Howie Mandel isn't my cup of tea, he does host one of the most popular game shows on TV right now. I mean, Deal or No Deal doesn't get those kinds of ratings because no one's watching it.

[OverIt]

Um... Deal or No Deal was recently cancelled.

[DeeW]

maybe that's why leno changed his time ... us old folks can't stay up that late

[Ponderus]

andadecadedumber

[zenbuck2]

Hope some of these "younger demographics" are lucky enough to get old someday ;-)