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Thursday, August 18th, 2011
Bad News
14

Conan Viewership Down Roughly 60% Since Premiere

by | August 18th, 2011

Oh boy. Apparently Conan ratings have fallen approximately 60% since the show's debut last fall. They've dipped below one million viewers per night after starting off at around 2.4 million, and the show is consistently beaten by Nightline, Leno, Letterman, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and even sometimes by Chelsey Lately.

TBS is allegedly shelling out big bucks to air episodes of The Big Bang Theory as a lead-in to Conan's show in the hopes of giving him a boost. "We want TBS to be a leading comedy brand," President of Turner Entertainment Networks Steve Koonin said, adding "How we get to that destination we don't have 100 percent mapped out today." Oh boy.

Tags:

conan, conan o'brien, late night, tbs, tv

  • http://www.collegehumor.com/user:328495 Chase Mitchell

    Oh god oh shit oh crap oh no

  • http://asianniceguy.com El Sabor Asiático

    It's already a well-worn punchline of course, but really — who watches TBS?

    That aside, I have to admit I stopped watching after a few weeks. Conan himself is reliably funny, but far too many of his sketches are kind of lame, and the parade of B and C list guests is just depressing. I don't know that he's doing enough to separate his show from the pack.

    • HerooftheBeach

      @El Sabor Asiático Agreed. The decision to not fight for any of his intellectual property from NBC looked admirable at the time, but it's been a real handicap that they've been unable to revisit any of their old material, and the guest lineups are indeed depressing.

      I really wish the talk shows would just give up on promoting their guests' materials and just have on engaging people instead. Conan is a great candidate to make this move, since the disparity in his show quality between a guest from the comedy world and basically anyone else is especially huge with him.

    • http://www.collegehumor.com/user:328495 Chase Mitchell

      @El Sabor Asiatico @HerooftheBeach
      What? His guest lists have honestly not been any better or worse than any other late night show. He literally has the same people promoting the same movies. And the sketches? Jesus, they've been the best part of the show. The quality is not the problem here.

    • http://sorryyourheinous.tumblr.com/ sorry your heinous

      @Chase Mitchell I'm with Chase here. The guests haven't been that much worse than the other shows and, I'd argue, the interviews have been better for it when they are. Conan occasionally gets a guest later than the networks and the interviews feel like they have less pressure to promote and are often looser. Additionally, if you haven't watched the show in a while, it has gotten much stronger. Andy and Conan's banter is like it used to be, the skits have been absurd and funny. The problem is the show is easy to forget on TBS. If the people that watched at the beginning of the TBS show gave it the same attention now, they'd notice the show is even better.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Caroline-Anderson/731041782 Caroline Anderson

    Why why why why WHY are they looking at dumb stupid old timey television ratings when internet is sort of all that matters any more? His videos get more hits than all those other shows. He has a stronger web presence. We can't pretend like things like Hulu and Netflix and Twitter and Facebook don't matter anymore.

    • Bearsalad

      @Caroline Anderson Yeah, What she said. If networks rely only on nielson ratings then any show with a demographic under 40 is at a disadvantage. Alot of 18-24 don't ever have cable anymore.

    • http://www.twitter.com/ThatNitin Nitin

      @Caroline Anderson They're looking at TV ratings because TV ratings is how networks/cable channels get paid. It's admirable that TBS is backing him so strongly, but for a cable channel they're spending a lot of money–more money than they can afford if the show isn't a hit. According to the Wall Street Journal, his contract is bigger on TBS than it was at the Tonight Show, where his audience was twice as big.

      Colbert and Stewart are producing shows for a lot less money, and are getting bigger ratings and more critical reception (I'm taking them together to compare to Conan as a 1 hr block.) I'm a big Conan fan, have been for years, and watch his show on TV, but TBS and Time Warner are not in a position to pour money into this show unless it is making serious cash. Ultimately, Conan's show is only guaranteed for 2 years, the first of which is ending soon. If his numbers don't improve–and they very well may–it will be difficult for TBS to justify having him on past that.

    • http://splitsider.com Adam Frucci

      @Caroline Anderson Yeah, web streams pay pretty much nothing compared to TV ads and cable channel fees. It is nice that he has a good internet presence, but that stuff is viewed as promotion for the show by the network. It's all about the bottom line, and if Conan is costing them more than he's making, million internet views a week or not they won't keep the show around.

  • TJ

    Conan needs to be on at midnight. I would DEFINITELY flip over to TBS from Comedy Central to watch Conan after The Daily Show and Colbert Report. There isn't a chance I'll ever watch Conan instead of TDS or Colbert, though.

  • http://www.allnightpictures.com KidPresentable

    I just feel kind of let down by how traditional Conan turned out to be. I know the comedy nerds (including, I think, this blog) feel that this is a Wrong Thought and that I should never gotten my hopes up about getting anything other than a Tonight Show clone, but I was really ready to have a talk show that spoke to my generation, more alt-comedy and less hokey project-shilling. I know Conan doesn't want to do that show, and I like him so theoretically I should want him to do what he wants, but I just can't connect to a format that was set in stone when the Baby Boomers were young.

    • http://www.collegehumor.com/user:328495 Chase Mitchell

      @KidPresentable While I love the current show, I do agree that I felt a modicum of initial disappointment when I realized Conan wasn't going to be shaking up the format any more than he did. It's hard to be too turned off by the familiarity of the show though. The writers took a big step back toward the sensibilities of Late Night, which is extremely welcome after the broadness of Conan's Tonight Show (which, to be fair, I also loved).

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Ben-Worcester/818292220 Ben Worcester

    Most distressing.

  • Justin Cresswell@twitter

    Our household surely didn't help by ditching cable altogether. Visit teamcoco.com all the time though.