Go Team Coco

[Ghoulish Delight]

Depending on how you look at the number Leno had either really good or really bad ratings last night.

The Good Interpretation
45% increase over Conan's average viewers
14% higher than Leno was getting on average in the first quarter last year
Nearly double Letterman's numbers for the night.

The Bad Interpreatation
56% lower than Conan's debut, and that's with the benefit of NBC's fairly strong numbers coming off the Olympics, and without the handicap that Conan had with his debut coming in what's considered "off" season.

I'm looking at that and thinking NBC execs are shaking in their boots. Massive media coverage of the situation, big network exposure with the Olympics, coming off of sweeps month...and all Leno can muster is a 14% bump over his average? It's likely to only be going down from here as the hype surrounding the controversy and premier fade.