Conan O'Brien

You show up, it's like second week of 1989 and it is a smash immediately.

And here's the thing that's really interesting.

You talk in your book about

Your ratings were huge.

I think you were second to Johnny that first week.

But what you had is you had 35 and younger.

Your demo was through the roof.

And what's interesting is that was good news for you then.

But what you couldn't possibly know is today to have a demo like that.

that means you're on the air for the rest of your life.

The demo is more important than how many people are watching you.

And I think you existed at a time- For advertising.

For advertising, because now, I mean, for a chunk of my career, it's the demo that saved me.

It wasn't that everyone in America wanted to see me.

It's the young people who buy things

wanted to see me, and that's what made a difference and saved me.

I think that you were in a much more difficult time where you had a great demo, and then you're also expected to get everyone in the country watching you, which is complicated.

Do you know what I mean?

I mean, first of all, you were...

I just think that that was a challenge you had that no show can pull off today.