Monday night's premiere telecast of "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" generated "Tonight's" highest metered-market household rating for a Monday edition in more than four years and the seventh-highest Monday in the 17 years since Jay Leno began his run as "Tonight" host in May 1992, according to in-home viewing figures from the 56 local markets metered by Nielsen Media Research. The Monday debut of "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" averaged a 7.1 rating, 17 share in metered-market households, "Tonight's" strongest "overnight" results since the January 24, 2005 telecast featuring a special tribute to Johnny Carson.
Last night's 7.1 rating in the metered markets is up 82 percent versus the "Tonight" second-quarter average of a 3.9 rating in the 56 local markets metered by Nielsen.
Versus his final telecast of "Late Night" on February 20, Conan was up last night by 173 percent (7.1/17 vs. 2.6/8).
Conan won last night's time period by a 154 percent margin over CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman" (7.1/17 vs. 2.8/7) and beat the combined results in that hour of "Late Show" and ABC's "Nightline" (2.7/6) and "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (1.2/4 with an encore telecast).
"The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" was Monday's #1 telecast in the metered markets, rating ahead of all primetime telecasts on all networks.
At 12:35 a.m. ET, "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" (2.5/9) delivered its highest metered-market rating to date for a Monday telecast, topping even the show's March 2 series premiere (2.3/8). Jimmy generated a 47 percent increase over the show's 1.7/6 average for the quarter to date and dominated the hour over CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (1.6/5).
Conan has taken over as host of "Tonight" after a dominant run as host of "Late Night" from September 13, 1993 through February 20, 2009, a period during which he won 57 out of 57 quarters in adults 18-49 over "Late Late Show" competition.
National ratings for last night's "Tonight," including demographics and viewer totals, are due from Nielsen on Thursday, June 11.
Source: NBC
