• by Wayne Friedman , November 10, 2010

Day Two of Conan O'Brien's return to the late-night airwaves witnessed 1.3 million less viewers -- but still healthy numbers overall.

Tuesday night brought in 2.82 million viewers for TBS' "Conan" -- down 32% from the big 4.1 million on opening night. His key 18-49 viewer group sank 35% to 2.13 million -- down around 1.1 million from Monday night. Younger 18-34 viewers were 41% lower to 1.4 million from 2.45 million.

Much of the drop was expected. Horizon Media senior vice president and corporate media director Brad Adgate believes O'Brien's overall viewer numbers will stabilize around 2.3 million to 2.5 million, with 18-49 viewers landing around 1.5 million. Despite the dip, Adgate estimates that "Conan" would still average a win for the first week against all late-night competitors, broadcast and cable.

ABC's "Nightline," which had been the best overall rated late-night series, had a Nielsen preliminary 3.2 household rating, resuming its top spot. CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman" came in second with a 3.0 rating/8 share, the leader among all late-night entertainment talkers. NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" was a bit further back, at 2.5/7. Then came "Conan" with a 2.1 household rating.

Other late-nighters: ABC's"Jimmy Kimmel Live," with 1.7/6; CBS' "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson", at 1.5/6; NBC's "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon", with 1.2/4; and "Last Call with Carson Daly" at 0.7/3.