Conan O'Brien Ad Tries to Kill Late Night Wars When They've Only Just Begun

If the TV business wasn’t so full of out-sized hype, I would’ve been shocked at the hubris of an ad I saw this morning on both the sites for Advertising Age and Mediaweek; one which, in four frames (two of which are shown here), proclaimed the “Tonight Show”’s continuing dominance of late night TV in the new, Conan O’Brien age. Dominance? At this point, less than three weeks into O’Brien’s tenure, that seems a bit of an overstatement; “The Late Show with David Letterman” is still very much in the game.

So here’s the fine print: the ad’s focus is the 18 to 49 age bracket. While it’s true that’s the demo advertisers still remain hung up on, and that O’Brien dominated it during his first week on air, snaring a 2.3 rating vs. Letterman’s 0.9, don’t be fooled into thinking this means the overall race isn’t still really close. Letterman actually beat out O’Brien one night last week, posting a 3.4 rating/8 share to O’Brien’s 2.9/7. As that pretty much never happened once Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” surged to dominance, it’s obvious there’s a real race on here. It’s certainly not time to predict a victor yet. As a fan of both, I hope the race continues.

(Yes, conspiracy theorists, BNET Media’s ultimate corporate overlord is CBS, which airs “The Late Show,” but the facts are the facts.)

Previous coverage of the late night wars at BNET Media:

• David Letterman Closes in on Conan, Renews Contract (Updated)
• NBC’s Zucker Loves … Is Committed to Conan … Jay Leno
• Boston’s WHDH to NBC: Actually, Jay Leno Rocks!

UPDATE: The New York Post’s Page Six claims that rival network execs are “agog” over this ad.