Reply #16: I got the impression from reports last year they made the move w/o market research

[Bucky]

I know people like to bash focus groups, but I'll bet if they'd spent half a million dollars on a bit of research first they'd have saved themselves hundreds of millions in lost revenue right along with the 10s of millions they'll spend buying off contracts for Conan's people.

To simply assume that Leno's dominance in the 11:30 viewer market would automatically translate to the 10:00 viewers. That's not just demographic differences (there probably aren't demographic differences). These are differences in consumer preferences in the kinds of shows they like to watch. This just underscores how TV stations view their audiences--not as customers, but as numbers of eyes the can sell to their real customers, the advertisers.