AD BUYERS UPBEAT OVER CONAN’S FIRST WEEK

After his first week on basic cable, Conan O’Brien’s TBS show is being assessed as a huge success by several advertising executives, Advertising Age reported today (Monday). “He’s bringing in really young viewers. The median age is over 20 years younger” than his rivals’, Amy Sotiridy of Interpublic Group’s Initiative told the trade publication. While the ad execs don’t plan to abandon the older-skewing late-night shows, the new one has them reappraising how they will divvy up their dollars and which ones will receive top priority, the magazine indicated. Most of the ad execs said that they will wait at least a few more weeks for the new show to reach its normal performance level before making any decisions about how much to spend on it, noting that there was a curiosity element involved in ratings for the first week. However, Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, president at Interpublic Group’s Magna Global, told AdAge, that “For the data that is there, it’s looking good” for Conan. Today’s New York Post quoted Lisa Quan of MagnaGlobal as saying, “Ratings could droop by half, and Conan would still be doing well.” What is not established is how the success of the show will affect CBS’s late-night show with David Letterman and NBC’s with Jay Leno. When New York Times TV writer Bill Carter was interviewed on the CBS News website about his latest book, The War for Late Night, over the weekend, he was asked who he believes will emerge as the late-night victor. Without hesitation, he replied, “Jon Stewart.”