DID JON STEWART REALLY BEAT JAY LENO IN RATINGS?

NBC is disputing claims by Comedy Central that The Daily Show with Jon Stewart topped The Tonight Show with Jay Leno among 18-49-year-old viewers during the second quarter. Comedy Central had boasted over the weekend that the victory marked the first time in 10 years — or 40 quarters — that Tonight had been beaten in the crucial demo. But contacted by the online edition of Entertainment Weekly, NBC spokesman Tom Bierbaum accused Comedy Central of manipulating the ratings, saying that the cable channel only counted the ratings for new shows, not reruns. Bierbaum said that that when every episode is counted, Leno comes out on top. Responded Comedy Central spokesman Stave Albani: “We believe that to be an archaic way of measuring performance. According to Comedy Central, The Daily Show averaged 1.295 million viewers, while Tonight averaged 1.292 million, a difference of 3,000 viewers or .003 percent, a figure that is regarded as statistically insignificant.