‘Tonight’ Switch Exposes Broadcasters’ Losses to New Media
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NBC’s decision to hand off stewardship of “The Tonight Show,” the most popular late-night program, highlights the dilemma facing all of the major networks: shrinking audiences for broadcast TV.
“The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” is averaging 3.5 million viewers a night this season, down 25 percent from five years ago, Nielsen data show. The program attracts about 1 million of the 18-to-49-year-olds that advertisers target, fewer than Conan O’Brien when NBC fired him as host in 2010.