Reviews for the new “Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” have been mixed. The audience reception, similarly, has not been overwhelmingly positive.
After debuting to a strong 7.1 overnight rating Monday, Conan’s version of “Tonight” has lost some of its audience each successive night. It posted a 5.0 on Tuesday, a 4.3 on Wednesday, a 3.8 Thursday and a 3.5 Friday.
The 7.1 premiere rating was undoubtedly not sustainable–it was well in excess of the average number for predecessor “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”–but the consistent drop indicates Conan’s failure to impress a large number of the curious viewers who are not part of his committed fan contingent.
The news is not, however, all negative. The Thursday-Friday decline mirrored that for other network late shows, indicating that “Tonight”‘s rating might have found its bottom. The 4.7 week one average was also up 21% from the April and May average viewership for “Leno” and 62% higher than the audience for competing series “Late Show with David Letterman.” O’Brien’s show topped the Letterman audience all five nights this week, although his victory margin was reduced to 23% on Friday.