As might be expected, the ratings of CONAN at TBS did tumble quite a bit during his second week on the air, much like they did at NBC. Last week the show pulled in big 2.9 million numbers. However, this week the show only averaged 1.7 million viewers. But, the show does pull in the youngest demographic of any late-night talk show with a median age of just 32.
The waiting game is now to see whether CONAN manages to hold an audience or even build new viewers, or whether this will completely mimic the ratings freefall at NBC that helped to end his show at that network. What NBC didn’t like about O’Brien’s performance there was that viewers quickly tired of the show and he failed to hold very much of Jay Leno’s audience on one hand, while also failing to bring high enough numbers of new fans to the time slot. So far, at TBS the early trend rating results are looking pretty similar, but it’s too early to tell whether TBS is satisfied at where things are going at this point in time or not. No doubt the network will give Conan O’Brien more time to make his case than NBC did.
CONAN is testing the patience of TBS in another way as well. He’s pushing the boundaries for profanity at the network, trying out a few choice words to see if he can get away with them. So far it appears that he’s managed to get his way because TBS wants for him to succeed. They have a big investment in the success of the show.