Conan gets a big sendoff: His "Tonight" farewell dominates Friday ratings
The final episode of "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" scored big with adults 18-49 -- averaging a whopping 4.8 rating in the 25 local people meter markets. That's a huge leap over his national season average in the demo -- a 1.1 rating.
It also beat everything that aired in primetime on Friday night (which, granted, was filled mostly with the "Hope for Haiti" telethon on all four major nets) and also repped O'Brien's best numbers since taking over "Tonight" seven months ago.
O'Brien dominated over "Late Show with David Letterman," which averaged a 0.6 in the demo, and helped "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," which scored a 2.3.
In the 55 national metered markets, O'Brien picked up a 7.0 overnight rating and 16 share -- virtually identical to his launch rating last June (7.1/16) and an enormous advantage over Friday night's Letterman ratings (2.5/5).
The metered market numbers also dwarfed O'Brien's farewell appearance on "Late Night" in February 2009 (2.6). But it didn't quite reach Jay Leno's "Tonight Show' finale last May, which posted a big 8.8 household rating/20 share in Nielsen's metered-market overnights.
Back in 1992, Johnny Carson wrapped his 30-year "Tonight Show" tenure with a 31.9 rating/62 share in the metered markets.
Complete ratings for O'Brien's final "Tonight Show" will be available next week.
O'Brien's final show included guests Tom Hanks, Neil Young and Will Ferrell -- as well as surprise cameos by Steve Carrell, Beck and Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top).
Variety's Team TV -- Cynthia Littleton, Stu Levine, Jon Weisman, Andrew Wallenstein and A.J. Marechal -- provides a roundup of stories big and small, as well as opinions and analysis from across the TV dial.
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I don't know about what Conan Said "I´m allow to say whetever I want about NBC...¨. IN the Interview with Tom Hanks after Conan says to him that he should be the star of Tom´s upcoming movie, there is a BROLL of Conan laughing. They cut out a part there, and at the end of the show there is a guy that hands a mic to conan but he doesn't says anything.
I think that is why they tape the show
Posted by: iksoviet | January 24, 2010 at 10:43 AM
People just wanted to make sure he WAS leaving!!!
Posted by: elizabeth schumann | January 24, 2010 at 07:25 AM