Not so long ago, Jay Leno wasn't so much making the jokes as he was a joke. His primetime experiment had tanked, and he came off like the villain in the Team Coco movement over to TBS. What a difference a few months can make. The big-chinned comedian is back atop the ratings, besting his rivals week after week.

The New York Times hosts an excellent article on Leno's rise from persona non grata to king of late night television. And, yes, Leno's victories include the youngsters. Of all the late night hosts, Leno draws the most young adults. More than David Letterman, more than Conan O'Brien, more than Jimmy Kimmel, and more than Jimmy Fallon.

But on the Web, there's a different story to tell. Over the past month, Web searches on Leno have been dwarfed by those of his competition. During the past seven days, for example, Yahoo! searches on "conan o'brien" were nearly four times as popular as those for "jay leno."
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Letterman holds an even larger lead. Queries for the CBS host were ten times as common as those for Leno. And while Jon Stewart isn't exactly a true competitor of Leno, the Comedy Central funnyman does draw more searches than Leno. Jay does draw more interest than his NBC co-worker Jimmy Fallon and ABC's Jimmy Kimmel. But not by a lot.

 

People can, of course, draw their own conclusions as to why Leno leads in viewers but trails in the Search box. Perhaps Leno's rivals have more viral moments, but he has the more appealing show? Whatever the reason, Leno is still the king of late night TV. But his kingdom doesn't extend to the Web. That's where Letterman rules.