Conan Ratings Win: TBS Debut Beats Leno And Letterman

Conan O'Brien's return to television demolished his late night competition in the ratings.

The premiere of "Conan" on TBS drew 4.2 million viewers, with a whopping 3.3 million of them in the coveted 18-49 demographic.

By contrast, 3.5 million viewers tuned into Jay Leno's "Tonight Show," with 950,000 in the 18-49 demo, and David Letterman's "Late Show" drew 3.4 million viewers, with 1.4 million in the demo.

Of course, the ratings for O'Brien will likely drop in the coming weeks, but he and TBS can still cheer about the figures for his debut.

Comments

[Keith E]

07:24 PM on 11/19/2010

I wish the best for Conan. I support him and Letterman. Leno is a snoozefest douchefest

[Faye Ray Goudreau]

03:43 AM on 11/16/2010

wishing Conan the best...hope he does well, have not watched LENO at all, Why does'nt he retire ..so boring. I still like Dave , at least he is entertaing to watch.

[Jill Kennedy]

08:48 PM on 11/15/2010

And yet no love for TBS or Basic Cable. He acts like it's 1985 and there is nothing but infomercials and the Cable ACE Awards on TV. $10 million a year is not chump change.

http://mankabros.com/onmedea/2010/11/tbs_go_get_your_shinebox.html

[Highlander0666]

12:52 AM on 11/16/2010

Wow... Really? You are pushing your own poorly thought out article to back your own claims? And you are griping about Conan showing respect when you don't even mention that little deceit in your post.

Who cares if he makes fun of TBS, if you haven't noticed its pretty much tradition for late night hosts to bash their parent network. ALL of them do it. Besides that "he" has never been on cable before, so he's goofing about the transition. Just because he is making fun of basic cable doesn't mean he thinks its 1985, thats the stupidest thing I have ever heard! Did you expect him to come out on his hands and knees exclaiming how great TBS or basic cable is? The whole article is a FAIL.

[Timothy Nunyabeeswax]

06:49 PM on 11/15/2010

Any ratings update? One show does not tell the tale . . .

[Aceboogie78]

12:24 PM on 11/15/2010

CONAN IS NOT FUNNY OR HE WOULD STILL BE ON NBC!!!!!!!!! PLAN AND SIMPLE

[Highlander0666]

12:56 AM on 11/16/2010

Neither Leno or Letterman... But he's a hell of a lot more likable!

[VinEastman]

08:48 PM on 11/14/2010

I'm glad to see Conan back, he has his own brand of humor and I think he is funnier than the rest of the late night comics. He started out slow on the tonight show but eventually got in his groove and rocked the house. When Leno came back to Tonight, his ratings fell after his first show as well. If he were on one of the Main 3 Networks his he may have more viewers, who knows!
Leno & Dave knew his return was not to be taken lightly!

[Liberalgirlandproud2]

01:29 PM on 11/14/2010

He lost 30% of his audience on his 2nd show, but of course HP isn't going to report that.

[oldfuzz]

10:12 AM on 11/14/2010

It's good to have Conan back so his fans can keep telling us how great he is although comparing his ratings with Jay and Dave is a stretch since everyone can watch Conan, but they have to choose between Jay and Dave. I usually watch one and tape the other and don't watch Conan, I'm out of his demographic.

[rotorhead1871]

01:04 AM on 11/14/2010

GO CONAN!!!! LEN-O IS ALPO AND LETTERBOX IS BORING........GO CONAN!!!!

[boomcat44]

02:10 PM on 11/13/2010

I haven't seen a new Conan posting in the last few days.
What's going on?
I miss the give and take with the Coco puffs.

[ChiGuy]

11:44 AM on 11/13/2010

Once the curiosity seekers have their moment and the novelty quickly wears off, the spike won't last long.

[kenhamlett]

11:32 PM on 11/12/2010

This posting is so old that Conan has now lost much of that audience the story mentions. How about an update?

[jerryatthebeach]

05:14 PM on 11/12/2010

He's got the younger audience. The one advertisers love...

[Tom Sutpen]

03:57 PM on 11/13/2010

Perhaps, but he didn't have them at NBC. His 18-49 numbers were, at their summit, no more than two-tenths of a percent higher than Jay Leno's . . . and his were always pitiful.

[rotorhead1871]

01:06 AM on 11/14/2010

That was the NBC error.....len-no diluted the CONAN audience.....it was a natural disaster...and it happened...

[zest]

05:11 PM on 11/12/2010

I like Conan; he's young and fresh.

[Tom Sutpen]

03:58 PM on 11/13/2010

He's hurtling toward 50 and he's about as fresh as Wall Street.

[BMW540i95]

11:27 AM on 11/14/2010

He's not young
He's not fresh
He's painful to watch
He's doing the same show he was doing at 12:30 AM on NBC a decade ago
I feel sorry for him
He's very bright guy, he should reinvent himself and do a smarter talk show
I like Conan, but it's time to grow up buddy - you can still be funny, just don't be a clown.

[stagebandman]

05:03 PM on 11/12/2010

Good for him. I hope he buries Jay.

Oh, and for those haters, if you don't like him, DON'T WATCH!

Are you just daft?