Leno Returns
 

Leno averaged 6.6-million viewers on Monday night, beating CBS' David Letterman, who averaged 3.8 million, and ABC's "Nightline," which drew 4.1-million viewers, per Nielsen. Among adults ages 18 to 49, Leno was first with a 1.6 rating, followed by "Nightline" with a 1.3 and Letterman's 1.1 rating. Each rating point equals 1.3-million viewers in that demographic. For what it's worth, Letterman was up in adults 18 to 49 Monday night.

Having digested those numbers, now we can go a little ways down the road. Leno's 6.6-million viewers were fewer than Conan O'Brien averaged in his premiere and in his final show. However, in between Conan's first and last shows, he averaged 2.7-million viewers and a 1.1 among adults 18 to 49. In other words, Leno can take a big hit in the ratings later this week and still beat O'Brien's average.For the really curious, Leno's last telecast in May, when he ended his first run as "Tonight Show" host, averaged 11.9 million, and his average last season was 5.14 million and a 1.4 rating in the 18-49 category.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ente...rst-place.html

Also
In the local people meter markets Leno was twice as popular with adults 18-49, scoring a 2.0 rating vs a 1.0 rating for Letterman.

In the metered market houshold ratings between 11:30p-12:30a Jay Leno’s return to The Tonight Show dominated Leterman and Late Show. Leno had a 5.4/14 (household rating/share) to Letterman’s 3.0/8.

Sure, Leno’s first night back (and perhaps first week or two back) is likely inflated by a post-Olympic halo, but the early indication is “all is forgiven.”

Nightline had a 3.4/8 between 11:30p-12:00a.

While much higher than Conan’s Q4 average, these numbers were down ~25% from the heavily promoted debut of Conan O’Brien last June
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/03/02...n-return/43507

On Second Night, Leno Again Beats Letterman
Jay Leno had a solid second night back on “The Tonight Show” Tuesday night, thanks in part to a special opening monologue from his lead guest, Sarah Palin.

Leno easily won the late-night ratings competition across the board with 5.8 million viewers and a 1.6 rating among the 18-49 audience that NBC always points to as the main measure of success.He dropped slightly fewer than 1 million viewers from Monday, when he reached 6.6 million people.In both categories he dominated his longtime competitor, David Letterman, who reached 3.7 million viewers Tuesday and had a 1 rating in the 18-49 group.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...ats-letterman/