May 31, 2013 @ 11:57 am By Tim Kenneally Jay Leno might be on his way out at "The Tonight Show" -- but he's leaving his network a nice parting gift. With numbers in for this year's May sweeps period, Leno's "Tonight" has widened his lead over his competitors David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel, posting impressive advances over the same period last year. Also read: 'GMA' Beats 'Today' in May Sweeps for First Time in 19 Years During this year's May sweeps, "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" posted a 39 percent lead over "Late Show With David Letterman" in the advertiser-cherished 18-49 demographic -- the widest May sweep margin over "Late Show" since 2004, and a 12 percent increase over last year's May sweep. "Tonight" averaged 1,075 million viewers in the demographic over the April 25-May 22 sweep period, versus 775,000 for CBS's "Late Show." In total viewers, Leno also widened the lead over Letterman compared to last year, averaging 3.515 million versus 2.767 million for Letterman. That's a 27 percent advantage, up 16 percent from last May. Leno's "Tonight Show" also increased its margins over its ABC competitor "Jimmy Kimmel Live" compared to the two shows' first head-to-head sweep in February, after "Kimmel" moved to 11:35 p.m. During May sweeps, Leno was ahead of "Kimmel" by 30 percent in the demo with 1.075 million viewers versus Kimmel's 826,000, and 42 percent in total viewers, averaging 3.514 million compared to 2,475 for Kimmel. In February, Leno led Kimmel by 12 percent in the demo and 39 percent in total viewers.
Leno has been hilarious lately. He has taken to making jokes about the dems that for some reason, he would never do before. He finally is funny.
Leno got a boost with the anti-NBC monologue for a few weeks during the time his forced retirement was being rumored and after Fallon was named new host. http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/21/showbiz/tv/jay-leno-jimmy-fallon-late-night-jokes http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/03/22/jay-leno-knife-back-nbc/ “Doctors in Canada were shocked after pulling a three-inch knife blade from the back of a 32-year old man. The knife had been in there for three years! Imagine that, the guy had a knife in his back for three years. He must’ve worked at NBC too. I was stunned by that.” “Have you heard about this alleged feud that I’m having with NBC? I think it’s going to be OK. This is real: I had dinner last night with a bunch of NBC executives. To make it up to me, what they did, they are sending my wife and I on an all expenses paid Carnival cruise. How about that? So it looks like it’s going to be OK. Fantastic!”
Always liked Leno. Hard worker and NBC made the right decision picking him over Letterman. Funniest guy ever? No, but he is a good late night guy I think in my opinion.
