PAST & FUTURE: Week 1 Ratings & Week 2 Guests

Welcome to the first Past & Future segment, where we'll take a look back at the week of CONAN that was, and then take a look forward at who's coming up on next week's episodes.  The "Past" will also include a review of the ratings for CONAN, which is not only important for Week 1, but will definitely show what he's made of by the end of Week 2.

RATINGS

Episode	Title	Original Air Date	Guests	Musical/Entertainment Guests	U.S. Viewers (in millions)
1001	"Baa Baa Blackmail"	November 8, 2010	Arlene Wagner, Seth Rogen, Lea Michele	Jack White	4.16
1002	"Murder, She Tweeted"	November 9, 2010	Tom Hanks, Jack McBrayer	Soundgarden	2.82
1003	"Dead Men Don't Wear Spanx"	November 10, 2010	John Hamm, Charlyne Yi	Fistful of Mercy with Tom Morello	2.72
1004	"The Mummenschantz Conundrum"	November 11, 2010	Michael Cera, Julie Bowen	Jon Dore	2.02

So, what does all of this mean?  To the naked eye, CONAN lost 50% of his opening night viewers, but not only is that completely acceptable, it's totally expected in the eyes of the entertainment industry.  The first of something, especially as well hyped as CONAN was before the premier, is bound to draw interest from those people who never had any intention of watching it beyond the first show anyway.  This happens to all shows that receive a lot of attention before beginning.

Think of it as the super blockbuster Summer movie that everyone has been talking about before it's released.  There's a lot of talk about Actor X being in the latest Blow-Em-Up Action Movie, and how it's going to dominate at the box office!  People get curious about what EVERYONE is talking about, so they go see it on opening weekend.  Now, does that translate into it being a good movie, just because it made $50 million on the opening weekend?  According to Hollywood, yes.  Is it worth all the airtime and internet chatter?  More often then not, no.

Am I saying that CONAN isn't worth all the pomp and circumstance that was created before the show even aired the first episode?  Absolutely not.  CONAN is a great show, and the main reason anyone talked about it to begin with was because of the whole NBC/Leno/Tonight Show fiasco.  John Q Public wanted to see what Conan was going to do with the new show on basic cable.  Clearly 50% of the opening night audience were the equivalent of those who slow down on the freeway to look at the accident, just so they can then talk about it at work as if they were actually a part of the drama.  "I was TOTALLY there! The car burst into flames!  I had to pull a lady from the burning wreckage, and then I performed CPR on the other accident victim!"

The main thing about the opening week ratings for CONAN is this: CONAN was able to hold on to his core demographic of 18-49 year olds.  For his first week, he averaged 2.9 million viewers and 2.16 million adults 18-49 (which works out to a 1.6 adults 18-49 rating).  For just the Thursday night episode, CONAN delivered 980,000 adults 18-34 and 1,361,000 adults 18-49, leading all late-night talk shows.  The episode – with guests Michael Cera, Julie Bowen and Jon Dore – was watched by 2,020,000 viewers overall.  The median age for CONAN is projected at 32.

This is great news for TBS, who is looking to target that exact age group for most of their programming. My guess?  TBS Executives are sending a very nice Muffin basket to the NBC Executives.  They helped to deliver the audience TBS needs.  Conan's core audience is made up of those fans who supported him during the 9-month hiatus from television, including his Summer tour and following him on Twitter.  The bulk of the opening night viewers may have departed for other channels, but the 2 million that remain are in it for the long haul.  That's got to be good news for CONAN fans everywhere!

NEXT WEEK ON CONAN
Coming up next week, Conan welcomes the following guests:

11/15/10 - LL Cool J, BJ Novak and musical guest Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

11/16/10 - Harrison Ford, Rosario Dawson and comedian-musician Reggie Watts

11/17/10 - Russell Brand, Susan Casey and musical guest Kid Rock

11/18/10 - Jesse Eisenberg, Venus Williams and musical guest The Decemberists

One of the great things about a nightly show like CONAN is that I get to broaden my horizons with musical guests I've never heard of before.  In doing the research for next week's guests, I'm excited to see what these groups will bring to the show.  The Decemberists sounds like they're going to be a fun way to finish up Week 2, and give us our CONAN fix to get through the weekend into Week 3.

Plus, with guests like LL Cool J, BJ Novak, Jesse Eisenberg, and Harrison Ford, Week 2 will really start to show us serious Conan fans (and the rest of the world) what CONAN will be like in the months to come.  Bring it, Coco!