To no one's surprise, Jay Leno's return to The Tonight Show won its time slot last night. I am amused by the fact that the New York Times report is headlined, "In Return Engagement, Leno Soundly Defeats Letterman," whereas Tom Shales over on the Washington Post started an online chat about TV proclaiming…
Bad news for Jay Leno fresh to us from ace reporter Emily Yahr in TV Team News Central. PRELIMINARY repeat preliminary ratings show Leno returning with pretty paltry numbers last night — DOWN 24 per cent from Conan's debut night as Tonight Show host, DOWN 55 per cent from figures for Leno's first night in Prime Time.
Talk about trying to spin a story the way you want to see it. Obviously, opening night numbers like that don't prove a lot either way, though I suppose it would have meant something if Jay hadn't won the time slot. Actually, I'd be a little suspicious of any news story on the time slot that parsed it all as Jay versus Dave. Jay's real competition there — the show that's been winning — is Nightline. I know it's more Up Close and Personal to pit Jay against Dave because of their history and because it's more fun to follow a war where the combatants both have faces (Nightline really doesn't) but NBC doesn't care if Jay draws viewers away from CBS or ABC. And for some time now, there have been more tuning in ABC at 11:35.