Jay Leno Hits New Low, George Lopez Debuts Strong

"The Jay Leno Show" hit a new ratings low Monday night, while the debut of George Lopez's "Lopez Tonight" posted strong and promising numbers.

Leno registered a 1.15 rating in the Adults 18-49 demographic, its lowest A18-49 rating to date, reports the New York Times' Bill Carter. Carter notes that NBC uses the A18-49 metric "to define success because of the number of advertisers who want to reach that group."

Meanwhile, Lopez premiered strong on three Turner networks, averaging 3.2 million total viewers across TNT, TBS, and truTV. The show premiered on all three networks, but will air on TBS, where it averaged 1.7 million total viewers and 1 million A18-49 viewers.

The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd says these numbers are promising for Lopez.

"That's higher than the current season averages (though not the premieres) of the adult demo draws for talk shows like CBS' 'Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson,' ABC's 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' and Comedy Central's 'The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,'" Hibberd writes. "If you use the combined three-net number, the show was sampled by more adult demo viewers than Conan O'Brien or David Letterman's average.

In related news, Broadcasting & Cable's Alex Weprin reports that NBC is shaking up the format of Leno's show. Whereas the show had been designed to save "Tonight Show" features like "Headlines" and "Jaywalking" for the end — to keep viewers for the 11PM local newscasts — those features are now following the monologue, almost identical to Leno's "Tonight Show" format.

Watch Lopez's debut monologue:

Watch Leno's Monday night show:

Comments

[fry]

I would love to see Leno pander like Lopez by saying ,long live the race like lopez does.This country is finding out racism isnt a white gene after all. Lopez i

[jmtrevino1127]

Way to "Go George"!
My way of thinking is this “Just because you forget about something doesn’t make it go away”. So the next time you snub your nose in someone's face or refuse to let them see the Jesus. Remember, today they could be asking for you help, tomorrow they could be signing your paycheck!

But I digres, so I leave you with these words of wisdom…”Either you integrate or we over populate and FORCE you to love us”!
Shoooooow!
JMTREVINO1127

[dubster]

I like george i hope he succeeds, but he needs to temper down his hyper racial monologue. Sometimes he's offensive to white people and can be borderline racist. If you alienate enought white people they're not gonna watch the show and it's gonna get canceled. And I don't say this as a white person but as fellow Mexican-American. I don't like when people talk bad about Hipanics and it has to go both ways. We can't tolerate prejudice and racism.

Having said that I'm glad he has his new show and I hope he keeps it, but he wont if the bias continues. We definitively more diversity on TV starting w/ more Hispanic Americans. This is good start which is way over-due!

[deezus]

I am amazed people actually watch that crap.

[victorvelasco]

Can someone define - as it applies to comedy - who exactly is a racist? The other night, Jay said to Kevin something about learning Mandarin and Cantonese and it was a cheap joke about knowing the number 18 and the punch line was a restaurant menu item. It was a joke a great or not-so-great could have made 30-50 years ago. Stupid, yes, racist, no. George Lopez, no matter what you think of him, is bringing something new to late night. This doesn't make the other guys obsolete, but when will Caucasian people realize that offensive and racist CAN BE and frequently ARE seperate from one another? We're all prejudiced but we are not all racist. Its good to be alive during a time when you can watch Conan, Mo' Nique, Jimmy, Dave, George or more blocks of Seinfeld/Frasier

[wm1066]

Could bush and cheney have gotten away with the stuff they did if Jack Parr or Johnny Carson was on the air? NO WAY! Leno and Letterman let us down, so I just tuned them out in 2003. I feel they had a moral obligation to skewer those guys and by not doing it they lost me. They both threw softballs, Letterman did some pushback but Leno seemed in the bag, and when I heard Leno had rush on it just proves my point.

[EF3]

At least we have Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

[mockley]

I agree with you about Leno. However, my guess is you don't watch Letterman too often - he's been ripping Bush and Cheney nightly for years and continues to do so.

[dmsdzinr]

The FACT of the MATTER is that Late Night TV has never been as good as when Johnny Carson ruled the roost! None of these folks even comes close!

[CaroleK1970]

Johnny Carson sucked

[geese1920]

Wow, Johnny Carson sucked? Carson was and will always be the king of late night TV. Letterman was great but he has become a little predictable. And Leno pales in comparison to both Carson and Letterman. Carson had class, and style. You obviously did not watch The Tonight Show when Carson was hosting, or you would not make a statement like that.

[dutchgirl55]

He lost me when he had Rush Bumburg on as a guest.

[ConjureMan]

It's about time a latino guy caught abreak. Geo Lopez, a very funny guy, and I wish him well, but I am sticking with Stewart.

[Alvin4NY]

Dear Jay Leno:
You have five nights of Prime-Time ......why is their such a resistence to having a live musical performance from a current band or singer? It would break up the lame comedy bits with a bit of excitement.

[NHBill]

Music is personal.
Many tune out if the performer is not to their liking.
That's why it's almost always at the end of the show.

[blisster]

Remember Obama was in promos for the Lopez show a while back.
Just saying.

[madcat007]

I didn't think this Leno experiment would work. There's too many popular shows on at 10 PM. If they had just had him on one night a week (Friday @ 10?) I'll bet this would've resulted with a more positive outcome. It's too bad, I like Leno and I think NBC shafted him for the very unfunny Conan.

[EF3]

HA! Leno wishes he was as funny as Conan.

[texastrixie]

I'm just glad that Lopez won't be on 3 networks every night. Watched a few minutes, went back to Daily Show (on opposite Lopez here). Can't get into Leno at 9, but then I had a hard time watching Tonight when there's Daily/Colbert.

[vesaversa1]

Leno should retire

[NHBill]

Jay doesn't need TV, but if NBC cuts him loose there will be a long line of both broadcast and cable networks that will be proud to have him. ABC and FOX would put him on at 11:30 in a heartbeat. They would re-brand Nightline for prime time. Fox would love to have a shot at a viable late night product. Then there's syndication. My guess is if NBC has to pull the Leno plug they will try to move him to USA or Bravo. His cost structure works for basic cable.

[rich3324]

Lopez is a racist.

[rrlane]

Ya wanna back that one up there, chief?

[rich3324]

Watch his act, chief.