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That Was Quick: Letterman Overtakes O'Brien

By James Poniewozik | @poniewozik | June 10, 2009 | +

 

Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS
Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS

Let’s do this by the numbers: 

Rating of Conan O’Brien’s debut Tonight Show: 7.1

Rating of last night’s Tonight Show: 2.9

Rating of last night’s Late Show with David Letterman: 3.4

Episodes it took for Dave to pass Conan: 7

Time it took after ratings news for an NBC executive to use the line that late night “is a marathon,” not a sprint: Evidently, moments. 

Mind you, I’m not slagging on Conan here. I like his show. (I like Dave’s too; for NBC, that may be part of the problem.) As a critic, if I’m happy with Conan creatively, I don’t personally care if he wins its time slot. That said, this is a pretty good day to be in the not-caring-if-Conan-wins-his-time-slot business. 

Next up: the demographic (i.e., age group) ratings, later this week, which will be a big measure of the Conan move as a business proposition.

Related Topics: TV Ratings, TV Ratings

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  • carolmr

    That’s a shame considering the un-funny rape joke aimed at Sarah Palin’s 14-year-old daughter by disgusting old man Letterman. It’s amazing what Dave can get away with.

  • van68

    The younger demographic will almost certainly skew toward Letterman for now, and why shouldn’t it? Watching episodic TV is a habitual process, and Dave’s fans — whom I assume overlap heavily with Conan’s — are used to watching Letterman at the 11:30 hour. It takes time for habits to readjust. For instance, I would expect Letterman’s audience will begin to skew older soon, as Tonight Show viewers eventually edge toward the host closer to their age.
    .
    It’s a whole new late-night world, now that the myriad occupants of the 11-to-12:30pm slot–Letterman, O’Brien, Stewart and Colbert–all share a common sense of humor. In fact, in retrospect maybe that’s why Leno cleaned up so consistently? His brand of comedy was fairly unique among his timeslot, and folks looking for that kind of humor had nowhere else to go. He’s the Fox News of comedy!
    .
    @carolmr: Is it so hard to imagine that Letterman’s joke about a Palin daughter getting “knocked up” was referring to the Palin daughter whose pregnancy was national news, and not her younger sister? In fact, why isn’t that the most logical interpetation?

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