Conan's Last 'Tonight Show' A HUGE Ratings Hit

NEW YORK — Preliminary Nielsen ratings suggest that Conan O'Brien won a hefty audience for his final hour hosting "The Tonight Show."

O'Brien scored a 7.0 rating for his farewell appearance on NBC Friday, compared to a 2.5 rating for CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman" and, on ABC, a 2.8 for "Nightline" followed by 1.3 for "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

These early figures, which reflect viewership in roughly 70 percent of the country, can't be reliably translated into audience numbers. An accurate viewer count is expected later this week.

O'Brien exited NBC after tumultuous negotiations that resulted in a severance deal signed last Thursday. His departure ends nearly eight low-rated months at "The Tonight Show," and, before that, 16 years hosting "Late Night."

Comments

[harriettubman]

11:59 AM on 01/26/2010

Why couldn't those same viewers & "fans" tuned in over the last months and given him some ratings then? It's too late now.

[Dervish Finkelblatt]

04:48 AM on 01/26/2010

Avatar, Late night drama, huge NFL audiences - escapism anyone? I don't blame us, maybe we needed somethings to take our minds off of the disappointments, frustrations, and anxieties of the day, but its a troubling trend...

[greeneye31]

09:25 PM on 01/25/2010

Zuckerman is delusional and sleeping with Jay.
Conan was the new frontier, they missed the boat.

[brooklyncitizen]

09:20 PM on 01/25/2010

It's amazing that TV is so central to people's lives.

[greeneye31]

09:25 PM on 01/25/2010

I know aren't we crazy

[Aaron Haynes]

04:33 AM on 01/26/2010

Really? Are you bewildered by it? You should tell us more.

[BUSTERtheCAT]

08:13 PM on 01/25/2010

ratings this ratings that...polls this, polls that...
So 59 million watch football, zillions watch new age Gong show, millions watch a clown at midnight.

man i love America, such a sports, entertainment driven society, it is mad cool, pass me another drink

[Brendan Diamond]

11:01 PM on 01/25/2010

Escapism is the only way to function when our government and societal institutions (namely businesses) are morally and economically bankrupt.

[kssaul]

06:46 PM on 01/25/2010

I would personally like to see Conan move to HBO. I think that he could be a GREAT fit there. The only adjustment for him would be going on once a week as opposed to every night. But just think, he would have the freedom to do whatever he wanted as far as content. He could go on Friday nights in the same manner as Bill Maher, Dennis Miller, and Chris Rock. Wishful thinking I guess, but oh well haha.

[Nicotone]

03:32 AM on 01/26/2010

So smart. He absolutely should!

[DSOTM]

06:25 PM on 01/25/2010

I am quite confident that Fox will pick him up at 11pm or 11:30, either way, Leno's job got that much harder.

Conan, you left with you head held high and I fell of the couch when Wil Ferrill took out the cow-bell.

We need more cow-bell.

[edwoodjr]

06:41 PM on 01/25/2010

Agreed. Fox will be the perfect place for Conan and I know I'll be watching.

[HappyMarsden]

06:22 PM on 01/25/2010

GREAT! So all he has to do is get FIRED by NBC for low ratings, and then his ratings can shoot up! Now if they could only figure out a way to keep this going.... maybe rehiring and firing CoCo (?) every few weeks would do the trick.

Neilsen ... eat your heart out!

[Scott1560]

06:15 PM on 01/25/2010

When the pressue hit, Conan delivered! Very compelling TV! Wish he had started his run w/as much vigor.

Knowing that the nets like to go after younger audiences........Why do they always wait until the selected hosts are middle-aged?

[blukazoo]

05:14 PM on 01/25/2010

Too bad the fans didn't show up during the rest of the time the guy was on the air. Foul weather fans...

[Scott1560]

06:22 PM on 01/25/2010

This is not sports........Got nothing to do with hometown pride........Either it is funny or it isn't! You can't be "on" every night and just as it was w/Letterman, a certain edge was lost when the show moved to an earlier hour.

[Conan776]

06:23 PM on 01/25/2010

Everyone just assumed everyone else was watching. :-/

I mean, if NBC had put a trial balloon up that the Tonight Show might be canceled they'd have gotten half that effect, easily. But the way this done was out of the blue.

[ctblue]

05:06 PM on 01/25/2010

Conan is a good guy and a great entertainer. But please, let's not see him on FOX. I couldn't watch...

[cc82]

05:10 PM on 01/25/2010

Why not? FOX isn't FOX-News... I feel like he'd have more leeway there (and a bigger audience than if he went to cable). He used to write for the Simpson's, on FOX...

[Scott1560]

06:17 PM on 01/25/2010

And the specific reason you could not watch him on the FOX TV Network?

[BudgieMan]

11:26 PM on 01/25/2010

Reason: Liberal

[galex101]

05:00 PM on 01/25/2010

In an unexpected turnaround, NBC has announced that the 'Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien' will continue going off the air four days a week, for the next 8 months, or until ratings fall.

[blukazoo]

05:15 PM on 01/25/2010

LMAO! Good one!

[YLS2007]

03:49 PM on 01/25/2010

I thought Jeff Zucker was the world's worst TV corporate executive in the world until this morning. That is until this morning when I heard Dink Ebersol on the Dan Patrick radio show. He boldly and clearly demonstrated as long as he has a job, nobody is more incompetent than he. Those two guys are the shallowest end of the pool.

[ReelBusy]

03:41 PM on 01/25/2010

So when does Jeff Zucker announce that Jimmy Fallon gets the TONIGHT SHOW in 5 years?

Too soon?

[BoyInBOYCOTT]

05:02 PM on 01/25/2010

First Zucker-Lenol will steal Jimmy's thank you note bit, and the drag series too.

One chilling outcome of the Conan war, who in their right mind will develop intellectual property, that they don't OWN?

[ctblue]

05:05 PM on 01/25/2010

Pretty much every scientist working for a corporation develops intellectual property that remains the ownership of the corporation. My brother is a senior scientist at a big think tank and many of his developments are patented but he does not own the patent rights.

[blukazoo]

05:16 PM on 01/25/2010

Everyone employed at any corporation.

[cc82]

03:28 PM on 01/25/2010

Needed more cowbell.