LENO RESPONDS TO BUDGET CUTS — IN HIS MONOLOGUE

Jay Leno responded Tuesday to reports that NBC has steeply cut the budget of the Tonight show and that Leno himself had offered to take a cut in pay of as much as 25 percent to prevent further cuts. Nevertheless, some 25 staff members of the show are expected to be pink-slipped. Leno tackled the […]

NIGHTLINE BEATS LENO, LETTERMAN IN MAY SWEEPS

The late-night race remained tight during the May sweeps, but ABC’s Nightline once again eked out a victory over NBC’s Tonight show with Jay Leno and CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman for the second May sweeps period in a row. The ABC news program averaged 3.88 million viewers, with Tuesday’s edition (following the finale […]

ABC’S NIGHTLINE REMAINS NO. 1 IN LATE-NIGHT

Among the late-night shows, ABC’s Nightline remained the top-rated show for the third week in a row among both total viewers and those 25-54, the key demographic group for advertisers during the late-night periods. Nightline counted 3.80 million total viewers of which 1.49 million were in the 25-54 age group. NBC’s The Tonight Show was […]

ABC TO AIR INTERVIEW WITH GINGRICH’S EX-WIFE

Once again raising the question of how far a news organization should go in revealing the personal foibles of a presidential candidate, ABC is planning to broadcast an interview with one of the ex-wives of Newt Gingrich tonight (Thursday), just two days before the South Carolina primary. Various reports had indicated that ABC executives had […]

LENO AND LETTERMAN TAKE BIG RATINGS HITS

It was not an auspicious start-of-the-season week for either Jay Leno or David Letterman. With DVR use way up and more and more viewers watching shows via cable’s on-demand technology or via Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services, or catching hipper, less restricted hosts on cable, like Jon Stewart and Conan O’Brien, the two late-night […]

ABC’S NIGHTLINE BEATS RIVALS IN ALL CATEGORIES

It was a week when both The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with David Letterman were both airing reruns — allowing ABC’s Nightline to take over as the late-night ratings champ. The network said Thursday that Nightline ranked No. 1 among total viewers, adults 25-54 and adults 18-49. “This is the first […]

LATE-NIGHT TV SHOWS CONTINUE TO STRUGGLE

The demise of George Lopez’s late night show has underlined the obstacles that late-night programs in general continue to face from increasing competition and from viewers watching programs that they recorded earlier in the evening on their DVRs. Today’s (Friday) New York Times observed that the first half hour of NBC’s Tonight show averaged 3.6 […]

ABC’S NIGHTLINE BEATS TONIGHT, LATE NIGHT FOR 13TH WEEK

ABC once again boasted that with Nightline it had the biggest late-night audience last week in total viewers and those 18-49. It also claimed it ranked #1 in total viewers for the 13th week in a row. Moreover, it noted, “This is the first time ever that Nightline has been in first place at this […]

LATE-NIGHT VICTORIES FOR EVERYONE

Each of the major late-night shows on broadcast television has found something in the latest ratings to boast about. ABC’s Nightline trumpeted the news that it was No. 1 among total views, adults 18-49, and adults 25-54. However, analysts point out that Nightline‘s ratings are based on viewership during the 11:30 p.m. to midnight half-hour, […]

KIMMEL GETS NEW TIMESLOT; NIGHTLINE TO GO PRIMETIME

ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel is getting an earlier timeslot — five minutes earlier, to be precise. Beginning February 4, his show will begin precisely at midnight instead of at 12:05 a.m. The move will shorten the nightly ABC News magazine Nightline by five minutes. However, in an email message to ABC staffers, ABC News President Ben […]

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