<span style="font-size:120%;">Conan O'Brien is enjoying a sweet, sweet victory in the ratings. The TBS premiere of Conan has soundly beaten NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Monday night.

Conan drew 4.2 million viewers, which is very impressive. What's more: 3.3 million of them were adults 18-49.

By comparison Tonight had 3.5 million viewers, with only 950,000 of his audience in the demo.

Late Show with David Letterman had 3.4 million and 1.3 million.

O'Brien also trounced Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, as expected (see chart below).

As rivals are sure to point out, the series premiere of a new late-night program is almost always victorious, people want to check out the new show. O'Brien's Tonight on NBC dropped more than 50% from his premiere within a week. It's still an accomplishment, however, anytime a cable show beats broadcast.

The Hollywood Reporter</span>

<span style="font-size:120%;">A ratings dropoff after the big Monday night premiere of Conan was inevitable: the question was how steep it was going to be. In the metered markets, the TBS show posted a 2.1 rating last night (when adjusted for Mountain time zone), down 28% from the premiere, which beat all latenight shows. Last night, Letterman drew a 3.0/8, Leno 2.5/7, and Nightline 3.2. More data will be available soon.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/11/conan-drops-in-second-airing/</span>

Nightline is still #1.

As far as Conan's dropoff goes, I think his ratings will rebound during NCAA playoffs, when more male viewers eyeball the lineup post-ceremony.

I find it very tacky Conan is still generating his comedy off of his departure from NBC.... considering the payoff he got out of it. Move on, I sure as hell have. Pretty impressive start though non the less.

I find it very tacky Conan is still generating his comedy off of his departure from NBC.... considering the payoff he got out of it. Move on, I sure as hell have. Pretty impressive start though non the less.

Not only that but considering he raised bloody hell because he did not want the Tonight Show to be bumped from the 11:35pm time slot (which was the deal breaker for him), he had absolutely no problem bumping George Lopez so his show can be aired first, YET NO ONE TALKS ABOUT IT.

Lopez was very gracious about the whole thing. I've had enough of Conan's whining to last me a life time.

Cancel all their asses and bring me a Mary Hartman-esque soap for late night kthxbye

http://www.deadline.com/2010/11/its-official-conan-topped-all-late-night-shows-in-its-first-week/

http://www.deadline.com/2010/11/its-official-conan-topped-all-late-night-shows-in-its-first-week/

I hope he holds onto those numbers.

And what's the likelihood of that happening? I'd say slim.

And what's the likelihood of that happening? I'd say slim.

But even if he's getting a .9 in 18-49, those are still GREAT numbers for cable.

There's a new book about the battle:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/17/books/17book.html?_r=1&ref=television