NBC’S HIGHER PRIMETIME RATINGS AFFECT LATE-NIGHT, TOO

With NBC attracting its best primetime ratings results this season among the key 18-49 demo in the 10:00 p.m. hour last week, NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was able to take advantage of the lead-ins to widened its lead against its late-night competitors. As reported by Daily Variety, Tonight averaged 1.35 million 18-49-year-old viewers versus 1.05 million in that demo for CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman and 1.04 million for Conan. For the season, Conan leads with an average of 1.46 million 18-49 viewers, followed by Tonight with 1.27 million and Late Show with 1.17 million. ABC’s Nightline, which has the advantage of only airing between 11:30 and 12:00, when more viewers are still awake, averaged 1.28 million viewers.