'Jay Leno' bow brings in 17.7 million

Necro · 09-15-2009, 06:25 PM

Quote:

The premiere of "The Jay Leno Show" was a ratings dynamo Monday, outdelivering the host's "Tonight Show" finale in May by about 50% and standing as the night's No. 1 program.

According to Nielsen preliminary estimates, "Jay Leno," whose premiere night guest was Jerry Seinfeld, averaged a 5.1 rating/13 share in adults 18-49 and 17.7 million viewers overall during the 10 o'clock hour. This is a larger audience than any episode of an NBC series from last season, and the best overall for NBC in the timeslot since the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

By comparison, Leno's swan-song on "The Tonight Show" averaged a 3.4 rating in 18-49 and 11.9 million viewers overall

A big premiere rating was expected, but it will probably take a few weeks to see where the show's number settles, or what kind of a local news lead-in it provides for the network's affiliates. The 5.1 rating is a bit above industry expectations for the premiere and is about three times what NBC has said it could do on an annual basis to generate a profit.

NBC has certainly given the show a big promotional push -- including a substantial presence on the net's "Sunday Night Football," which drew 21 million viewers one night before -- and also gave its premiere a boost by airing it behind "America's Got Talent." The penultimate episode of "Talent," the summer's most-watched series, averaged a 3.6 demo rating and 14.9 million viewers overall during the 9 o'clock hour Monday.

At CW, the season premieres of "One Tree Hill" (1.2/3 in 18-49, 2.6 million viewers overall) and "Gossip Girl" (1.3/3 in 18-49, 2.5 million viewers overall) were both below last year, when it was "Gossip" leading into "Hill." In the net's target adults 18-34 demo, "Gossip" built on "Hill" in 18-34 rating (2.0/5 to 1.6/5), placing second to NBC among the broadcast networks.

Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: NBC, 3.9/10; CBS and Fox, 1.8/5; ABC, 1.5/4; CW, 1.3/3.

In total viewers: NBC, 15.1 million; CBS, 5.9 million; ABC, 5.0 million; Fox, 4.8 million; CW, 2.2 million.

Source: Variety

Not surprising lets see how he does in the upcoming weeks.

Mr. Kennedy · 09-15-2009, 08:23 PM

I'm a big fan of Leno, and I thought the first episode was really good. There is a reason Leno was the king of late night (now he is in primetime). Who knows what the series will settle into since I know a lot of people would tune in to see what the show would be like.

I liked the first episode, and was surprised to see Kanye West wanting to talk before the performance. Nothing really new, but glad he apologized for his actions at the VMA's.

Jayman · 09-16-2009, 09:04 AM

My problem is that Jay Leno is putting on essentially the same show that he was doing on the Tonight Show. Now, being on at 10pm every night, he's kinda stealing some thunder from Conan by doing jokes on the day's top stories before he can.

I know there are fans of just Leno or just Conan, but for those that are both..if you got your funny fix at 10pm, why would you tune in to see the same kind of jokes an hour and a half later? (I'm talking specifically about the monologues here).

I enjoyed his first show mainly because Jerry Seinfeld was on it. That and Headlines ruled. The rest was kinda meh.

dxanman · 09-16-2009, 09:26 AM

I used to be a fan of Leno, but for the past few years I didn't find his show to be that funny at all. I was SUPER happy when Conan took over The Tonight Shot. But, when I heard that Leno was coming back with a new show before Conan, I thought that he was doing it just to be in front of Conan again.

I didn't watch the first show, and I probably won't watch it, but it just seems funny that Leno retires from the Tonight Show, and then comes about 4-5 months later with pretty much the same show. Seems fishy, and not really fair to Conan.

Mr. Kennedy · 09-16-2009, 10:40 AM

Leno didn't retire from The Tonight Show, he was forced out by NBC because they didn't want to risk losing Conan to another network. After they realized that Leno (who was #1 in ratings) was getting offers from other networks (and knowing that a Leno hosted show would easily beat the Conan hosted Tonight Show), they scrambled to offer him his own show. I like Conan and think he is doing a good job, but the Leno version of The Tonight Show was much better.

You should watch The Jay Leno Show, it is not just the Tonight Show with a new name. Yes he does bring SOME elements from the Tonight Show with him, but he brings a lot of new stuff to and has more of a focus on comedy than on guests (which is why he only has 1 guest per show now).

dxanman · 09-16-2009, 11:07 AM

Well, you got me on that one. I'll admit that.

I "may" give it a shot, just to see what it's like. I'm sure I can find a clip of it on youtube or something..

'Jay Leno' bow brings in 17.7 million

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