Who Likes Jay Leno So Much, Anyway?

Your Facebook page is covered in "I'm with CoCo" pics, but old people love Jay and old people get what they want

I can't believe NBC is favoring Leno over Conan. Who even likes Leno?
—Vork, via the Answer B!tch inbox

First of all, your terminology is incorrect. There is no Jay Leno or Conan O'Brien, only Team Chin and Team CoCo. Understood?

For the record, most of you, my dear rabid B!tchlettes, appear to favor Team CoCo, aka Conan, in the latest late-night war.

You say he should be able to keep his promised slot. But if you want to blame anyone for keeping Jay Leno on the air and shoving Conan out of his rightful 11:35 p.m. place, I have your scapegoat right here...

...and the answer is: old ladies.

"Leno's audience is mostly made up of the older, 50-plus set, driven by women," say the research folk at MediaVest USA. "Conan has a younger audience, with a more even male/female make up. Neither show has any notable income or race skew."

In other words, you can't blame rich people—unless you count Leno himself, who reportedly commands an estimated $30 million a year via his show. (And of course I'm not even counting his multimillion-dollar exotic car collection.)

You also can't blame white people, black people, poor people or even middle-income people. You can only blame the old, which is always fun, and women.

Where does Letterman fit into all this?

Well, have some more numbers. According to Forbes, the median age of Letterman watchers is 54, while Leno's—when he still hosted The Tonight Show—was 55. Conan's is currently around 45. (By the way, Stephen Colbert viewers have a median age of 38.3; Jon Stewart's people have a median age of 41.4—the youngest viewer groups among late night.)