Conan O’Brien Wins the Youth Vote, for Now

O’Brien has a projected median audience age of 32, but we know how fickle these young folks are nowadays

Conan O'Brien ended his first week claiming victory in at least one area: His audience looks to be the youngest in late-night.

The median age of O'Brien's audience for his new TBS show was projected to be 32, the network said, suggesting that all that social networking has paid off.

Of course, his show is also the youngest in late night. So there's no telling how the audience might change in the weeks ahead. Especially with the short attention span of the kids these days, with the Twitter and the videogames and "Jersey Shore" and no respect for anything.

O'Brien, whose four-day week ended Thursday (kids go the "kiss parties" and "raves" and whatnot on Fridays) finished with an average of 1.8 after premiering on top in his debut.

On his first night, O'Brien had 4.2 million viewers — more than three-fourths of them in the 18-49 demo, drawing viewers with a median age of 30. His 2.8 rating predictably slipped in subsequent days, giving him an average of 1.8 for the week.

As the ratings dipped, the median age appears to have sloped upward. Kids these days, no loyalty.

"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with David Letterman" — which are on the air five nights a week, thank you very much, uphill in both directions — were duking it out for overall ratings dominance.

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