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LOS ANGELES, California (X17online) - Based on preliminary ratings, NBC's The Jay Leno Show is off to an excellent start.

For the debut of his 10pm comedy show, Leno pulled a 12.1 preliminary metered-market household rating and 19 share, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This is 70% stronger than Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show premiere last June (7.1 household rating, 17 share, 9.2 million viewers) and 38% higher than Leno's own final Tonight Show appearance last May (8.8 household rating, 20 share, 11.9 million viewers).

We can't be sure of the exact viewership just yet, but it seems as though Leno's 12.1 could translate to more than 10 million viewers.

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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (X17online) - With Jay Leno's late-night reputation on the line, NBC is making sure that the Tonight Show returns with a celebrity-packed lineup.

The guests for the first two weeks have been announced.

Leno will welcome former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, the cast of MTV's Jersey Shore and American Idol judge Simon Cowell.

Since NBC is currently hosting the Winter Games, Olympians Apolo Anton Ohno, Shaun White and Lindsey Vonn will also be guests.

The Tonight Show will relaunch on Monday with Jay Leno as host. Conan O'Brien took over the show for seven months, but NBC made the switch back to Leno because of poor ratings. This is Leno's first return to late-night television since NBC canceled The Jay Leno Show at 10 p.m.

During its first two weeks, the Tonight Show will also welcome Dakota Fanning, Jamie Foxx and Kim Kardashian.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (X17online) - Conan O'Brien, who? Now that Jay Leno is back, the peacock network seems to have forgotten about the short-lived host that held the hosting spot up until just recently.

The Tonight Show trounced David Letterman in the ratings, scoring a 5.7 share to Letterman's 3.0.

During Jay's first show last night, Tonight Show regulars Kevin Eubanks, Ross the Intern and John Melendez all hammed it up in front of the live studio audience.

As Leno opened the show, he said to the crowd: "Thank you very much! It's good to be home. I'm Jay Leno, your host...at least for a while."

The audience roared when he talked about his nerves. "I'll admit I'm a little bit nervous. Not because it's my first night back, but because I know Dave and Oprah are watching."

With champagne in hand, first guest Jamie Foxx got the crowd going. We'll see if Jay can keep up the momentum.

LOS ANGELES, California (X17online) - The Tonight Show with Jay Leno keeps widening the ratings gap between The Late Show with David Letterman.

This past week, the Tonight Show averaging 1.29 million viewers secured a 41% margin lead over The Late Show who pulled in 914,000 viewers. For the past 22 weeks, Leno has held on to the top spot.

Back on March 1, Leno came back to host The Tonight Show after NBC's failed experiment with The Jay Leno Show at 10pm. Conan O'Brien, who had replaced Leno for a short time before being let go, has since moved his late-night show to TBS on cable.

LOS ANGELES, California (X17online) - The Tonight Show With Jay Leno is doing poorly in the ratings with the coveted adult 18 - 49 demographic.

According to ratings reports, Jay's summer programming has been the lowest-rated Tonight Show to date. Despite these poor ratings, Leno is still attracting a bigger audience compared to his late-night rival David Letterman.

Compared to O'Brien's Tonight Show, Jay is pulling in a bigger audience by 12%, however O'Brien did capture a larger amount of the key 18 - 49 demographic which is important to attract advertisers.

Conan O'Brien's late-night show, Conan, debuts this Fall on TBS.

LOS ANGELES, California (X17online) - Within the seven months since Jay Leno has taken back the Tonight Show slot, his ratings among younger viewers have dramatically fallen.

Leno's viewership has dropped 0.1 points below Conan O'Brien, who hosted the Tonight Show from June 2009 to January 2010. Recent figures have shown that nearly 34 million viewers, ages 18 - 49, tune in to late night talk shows between 11pm to 1am, according to Nielsen.

Leno has also been losing steam against longtime rival David Letterman. Over the summer, the difference between the two shows was around 800,000 viewers, but now that number has dwindled to a mere 130,000.

As for Conan, the comedian has already begun taping segments for his upcoming TBS show, Conan ... premiering November 8th.

NEW YORK, New York (X17online) - New York Times writer Bill Carter is releasing a new book called The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy which will detail what went down when Conan O'Brien left NBC.

In the book, Carter writes the question "What does Jay have on you?" ... something he claims is what Conan kept asking NBC executives.

He writes that O'Brien, who found out that Leno was taking The Tonight Show back, told executives, "I know how hard I worked for this. It was promised to me. I had a shitty lead-in."

As for how O'Brien felt about Leno, Carter says Conan told his producer and head writer, “I’m not gonna hear from that guy. I’ll probably never hear from him again.”

Even Jeff Zucker was quoted as saying, "I want an answer from Conan and I want an answer quickly. You know I have the ability to pay him or play him, and I could ice him for two years. ... Just let me tell you something: You are not going to f**king play me."

The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy hits stores on November 4.

Courtesy: NBC

The network canceled Reiser's new show, The Paul Reiser Show, earlier this week after only two episodes. Ratings had been poor.

Reiser tried to find a friend in Leno. "NBC, to my knowledge, they don't traditionally make bad decisions," Reiser said. "Have you heard that? I don't know what your experience is."

Then, he appeared to show some maturity. "It turns out they said we enjoy missing you more than actually having you," Reiser joked. "But listen, I don't take it personally."

Before one final dig: "Listen, when you're the last place network, you don't want to jeopardize that," he said. "You've found your niche. Stay there."

LOS ANGELES, California (X17online) - President Obama will visit Jay Leno on Tuesday’s episode of The Tonight Show.

The president will likely use the opportunity to promote his $447 billion jobs bill and his reelection next year.

Obama’s appearance will be his second as president and fourth overall.