John Stewart And Conan O'Brien Battle For Top Cable Ratings

While network talk shows by Jay Leno and David Letterman draw the biggest audiences, up to around 3.9 million viewers each depending on which big name guest appears, Jon Stewart and Conan O'Brien continue to battle it out for the top cable talk show ratings race. Recently, Conan O'Brien's numbers have slipped below the 900,000 mark to around 811,000 average viewers. That's a little better than Stephen Colbert, but not quite as good as John Stewart's numbers which average 895,000. Still TBS has to be thrilled that Conan posts great numbers among the coveted 18-49 aged audience, a prime audience that advertisers love to market to.

The gamble of TBS and Conan O'Brien still seems to be paying off despite numbers that steadily seem to be sinking downward somewhat. TBS continues to be happy enough. They consider Conan to be a "talent" that delivers a "specific audience" for the network in a statement. That may not be high praise or a real glowing comment. But, that's good enough to be sure that Conan has a very secure place at TBS for now.