The debut of Conan O’Brien on The Tonight Show Monday scored huge ratings, though not as big as Leno’s sendoff on Friday.
Conan debuted to a 7.1 overnight household rating and 17 overnight household share, according to Nielsen. Locally in Chicago (WMAQ-TV, NBC5), O’Brien’s debut notched a 8.7/18 (scroll down), tied for fifth with Pittsburgh (WPXI-TV) for the most-watched market.
Leno however, scored a 8.8 HH rating and 20 share Friday, with Chicago clocking in at 10.9/23 (Baltimore’s WBAL-TV had the highest rating, at 15.4/30.)
Markets showing the love for Conan was Minneapolis’ KARE-TV with a 12.8/29, followed by St. Louis’ KSDK-TV with a 11.4/24, ranked first and second, respectively among most-watched markets.
But they must hate Conan O’Brien here: Raleigh-Durham’s WNCN-TV was the lowest-rated market, with a 3.7/8. Then again, it was the lowest-rated market for Leno’s sendoff as well (3.9/8).