NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno†has won the week of August 30-September 3 in adults 18-49 and total viewers over all cable and broadcast competition, delivering bigger audiences than CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman†and ABC’s combination of “Nightline†and “Jimmy Kimmel Live†in every key ratings category: adults, men and women 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54, as well as total viewers. Note that “Kimmel†was in rebroadcast last week.Jay generated his biggest 18-49 audience in eight weeks (since the week of July 5-9), his biggest overall audience in five weeks (since July 26-30) and his biggest adult 18-34 audience in 15 weeks (since May 17-21).
From an NBC press release:
Jay Leno’s Tonight Show was back with new episodes last week (ending 9/3/10) but continued to trail Conan’s Tonight Show adults 18-49 ratings on a calendar week basis (2010 vs. 2009). On a comparable calendar week basis, Leno’s Tonight Show has never topped Conan’s weekly ratings.Leno’s Tonight Show for the week of August 30 – September 3 averaged a 1.0 rating with adults 18-49 and Conan’s Tonight Show ratings for the comparable calendar week last year averaged a 1.1 rating with adults 18-49.
And here’s TV by the Numbers comparison of Leno’s ratings to Conan’s from the same week last year: