• The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, October 19, 2010 12:20 AM

Comedian Jay Leno's audience among young viewers has shrunk in the seven months since NBC reinstalled him in his longtime perch on "The Tonight Show" and ended Conan O'Brien's brief stint as host, writes The Wall Street Journal. Leno will be jockeying for that audience as O'Brien is slated to launch his own late-night comedy show, dubbed "Conan," on TBS in just three weeks. O'Brien has already started taping comedy bits for the show, and will begin run-through performances in Burbank, Calif., next week.

"Conan" is a lower-budget version of the comedy talk show he has hosted for years, albeit with a smaller set. Leno and O'Brien won't face off directly. "Conan" begins at 11 p.m. Eastern time, 35 minutes before "The Tonight Show." Both have relatively different audiences. But all late-night hosts, including David Letterman and Jon Stewart, are fishing in a relatively static pool: Roughly 34 million people between 18 and 49 years old are watching TV between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m., per Nielsen.

Since Jay Leno returned to The Tonight Show, his numbers in the 18 to 49 demographic have dropped significantly. Just 1.3 million of his 3.7 nightly viewers are between 18 and 49, down 4.4% in the last seven months. He even tied Letterman for the first time with a .09 rating, reports Perez Hilton.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »