Colbert in Iraq: Mission Accomplished

By James Poniewozik | @poniewozik | June 11, 2009 | +

After Conan O’Brien’s ratings decline continued in the beginning of this week, I wondered whether the Tonight Show was being affected by Stephen Colbert’s highly publicized week of USO shows from Iraq. While it’s impossible to establish a direct cause and effect, Bill Carter of the New York Times reports that Colbert’s ratings were way up early this week, 25% over his average, and that there was likely a strong push-pull the other way last week: “The numbers represent a big bounce from an atypically down week for Mr. Colbert the week before, which Comedy Central executives attributed to the strong first week of Conan O’Brien’s “Tonight Show” on NBC.”

Have I mentioned, by the way, how grateful I am to late-night television for having given me material for the slow summer TV weeks? It’s this or an 800-word review of Wipeout, folks.

Related Topics: TV Ratings, TV Ratings

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tyrantking

Well out here in the Mountain West, the new episodes of Colbert don’t start until 12:30 a.m. The following day. So Conan’s show has been over for an hour before Colbert’s show starts.
Dave

I dunno, James, Wipeout is pretty hilarious. I suppose there’s nothing to review, but Mrs. Dave and I can watch it nonstop and be totally entertained. Maybe link to some hilarious wipeout clips and call that the review?
Carlos the Dwarf

@tyrantking – doesn’t that drive you insane? i can’t understand why, if com central delibertly reruns all their shows a few hours later any way, they don’t just simply give us the east coast feed. Then we could watch the new DS/CR at 9pm (as jeebus intended) rather than the rerun.
I blame comcast who, as we all know, are also responsible for SARS, tornados and the Palin family.
James Poniewozik

@Dave–don’t get me wrong. Wipeout’s funny… tho to me for about half an episode and then I feel I’ve seen it all. Maybe they need some new obstacles. How many balls jokes are there?
rhys1882

Wipeout is just MXC for middle America.
profdante

there’s always the fabulous So You Think You Can Dance. If your blog overlords can call upon you to write little blurbs for American Idol, surely SYTYCD deserves the same.
Rorschach

I’m pretty pleased actually at the lack of review over Ow! My Balls