14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this year, NBC announced a shocking decision they had made: after only a few months with Conan O’Brien as host of The Tonight Show, Jay Leno would be coming back to boost ratings.
That never came to happen, recently unveiled figures cited by ScreenCrave confirm.
As the scandal continued to polarize fans’ discussions, Coco bowed out of it gracefully, saying there was no way he could fight NBC’s decision.
At the same time, Leno said the network was the only one to blame because that’s how things were and would always be done in television.
Representatives for the network insisted the decision was not personal, but merely based on facts and numbers, wherefrom their belief that bringing Leno back would make ratings go up again.
Not only has this not happened, but ratings seem to have actually taken a plunge as compared to how they were when Coco was still on the show.
“This summer is the lowest-rated Tonight Show on record. Since the end of the broadcast season in May, Leno is averaging 3.8 million viewers and a 1.0 adults 18-49 rating (each ratings point in that demo equals about 1.3 million viewers),” ScreenCrave writes.
In other words, it’s not looking good for Leno.
“That’s a 12 percent improvement in total audience compared with O’Brien, though off 23 percent in the demo and down in both measurements compared with Leno’s performance two years ago,” the same e-zine explains.
On the bright side, though going down in ratings, The Tonight Show has managed to keep ahead of its direct competitors in the same timeslot.
“Even though it’s experienced some losses they claim that the show has returned to beating its CBS competitor Late Show With David Letterman,” says the aforementioned report.
“Other hosts in the field have been holding their ground including Craig Ferguson, while Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel have actually shown gains in viewership across the board,” ScreenCrave further informs.