Coco Gets the Last Laugh

Like a lot of people, I watched the final episode of Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show Friday night.  And like Tom Hanks said, in this house, Conan will always be the host of the Tonight Show.  I thought (for the circumstances), it was a great way to go out.

Too bad NBC is giving up the future for the past, because ratings wise, Conan’s last show pulled off something pretty incredible.  According to the New York Times:

In preliminary national late-night ratings, Mr. O’Brien scored a booming 7 household rating…

More impressive was the number for 18-to-49-year-old viewers — the gold standard for NBC because advertisers seek to reach that audience. There, in overnight numbers from the country’s 25 largest cities, Mr. O’Brien hit an extraordinary rating, a 4.8.

Not only would that be by far the biggest rating in that age group for any kind of show at any time Friday night…, it is also a better number than almost every prime-time show that has appeared on NBC this television season.

I hope that feels good, NBC.  But seeing as how Conan urged us all to give up cynicism and focus on the positives, I hope going out on a high note like this lets Conan keep his momentum and he stays himself for wherever his next show may be.