David Letterman Closes in on Conan, Renews Contract (Updated)
(UPDATE: Dave actually beat Conan on June 9 with a 3.4 rating/8 share, compared with Conan’s 2.9 rating/7 share. There were some mitigating circumstances, but looks like there’s a new late-night war on. Goodie!)
Somehow, in all of the hubbub surrounding Jay Leno’s sacrificing the “Tonight Show” chair to Conan O’Brien, one possibility has been little talked about: the chance that CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman” which long ago faded in the ratings up against Leno, might experience a resurgence with the fly-over state friendly Leno out of the picture.
Well, now that O’Brien is settling into his new job, the answer is maybe. Nielsen’s national overnight rating for Monday night saw O’Brien score a 3.1 rating/8, while Letterman had a 3.0/8. Yes, the ratings were almost the same. Compare that to Leno, who, on an average night in the second quarter, had a rating of 3.9. (For the uninitiated, Nielsen ratings represent the percentage of the audience being measured that is tuned into a particular program; share represents the percentage of those actually watching TV at a given time who are tuned into a particular program.)
As Television Week points out, the raw number of viewers may not matter, as media companies and advertisers remain hung up on the 18-to-49 demo; the first set of demographic numbers for O’Brien on “The Tonight Show” won’t come in until Thursday and are likely to show a broader gap between the two shows; Letterman also had a better guest Monday night in Howard Stern.
Still, though I’m sure it didn’t hinge on O’Brien’s early numbers, it’s probably no coincidence word leaked today that Letterman has just renewed his contract for another two years.
Previous coverage of the late night wars on BNET Media:
Catharine P. Taylor has been covering digital media and advertising for almost 15 years and is a frequent speaker at conferences about media and advertising. She posts daily to BNET Media, writes the weekly Social Media Insider column for Mediapost and also has her own advertising blog, Adverganza.com. Follow her on Twitter or subscribe to the BNET Media Twitter feed.
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