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NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt can be faulted for many things, but he knows how to read a ratings report.
The percentage of young viewers walking away from Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” doubled in the first quarter from the preceding three-month period as ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” turned up the heat, ratings statistics show.
Leno’s audience in the coveted advertising demographic of 18- to 49-year-olds fell 10.4 percent in the first quarter, to 990,000, according to Nielsen — the first quarter the veteran talk show host went head-to-head with Kimmel.
That’s more than double Leno’s 5 percent drop in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Kimmel’s 18-to-49 audience in his debut quarter at 11:30 p.m. was 901,000.
In fact, if the current viewership trend continues through the second quarter, Kimmel would overtake Leno and, among the key demographic, become the king of late-night television.
Letterman’s 18-to-49 audience fell 18.1 percent in the first quarter — to 858,000.
Kimmel’s 18-49 audience is smaller than that of “Nightline,” which preceded it in the time slot — but Kimmel has higher CPM (cost per thousand) rates.
With such a trend occurring with the key advertising demographic, it is easy to see why Greenblatt wants to make a switch — though Leno’s likely replacement, Jimmy Fallon, also lost key viewers during the first quarter, dropping 8.8 percent, to 621,000, in the demo.
Ratings aside, TV industry players on both coasts are aghast at how the probable transition of Leno to successor Fallon is playing out at the network.
One West Coast PR executive in the field noted: “No one can believe they’re replaying the same script — even with new characters, this is the same old NBC.”
This person added: “It’s another layer on top of a messy situation with Matt Lauer at the ‘Today Show.’ People have different opinions on whether [the Fallon transition] is a good move or bad move, but to let it work out this way makes no sense for a network already seen to be in chaos.”
Greenblatt had dinner with Leno on Thursday in an attempt to try to smooth things over, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Leno had been making fun of NBC and its executives on air all week.
Many believe the notoriously tight-fisted NBC executive team is also looking to make the move because it will save money.
Leno earns about $20 million a year and Fallon, TV insiders suggest, would earn about $12 million.
“With all the fragmentation, there is no king of late night — just a few princes, dukes and earls,” Brad Adgate, research chief at Horizon Media, told The Post.
Darcy Bowe, a media director at Chicago ad agency Starcom, told The Post that cable has fragmented viewership in late night with many viewers watching cable.