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 […]

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 […]

CONAN MEETS HARRY POTTER — IN HIS AUDIENCE

Conan O’Brien may be taking some of the advice from network executives that he spurned when he hosted NBC’s Tonight show. In the recently published The War for Late Night, author Bill Carter, who covers television for the New York Times, writes that the execs repeatedly urged O’Brien to mingle with and interact with the […]

LENO’S RATINGS RISE ABOVE O’BRIEN’S YEAR OVER YEAR — SORT OF

The website TVbytheNumbers, which analyzes broadcast and cable ratings, has been reporting in recent weeks that Jay Leno’s ratings among adults 18-49 have consistently been trailing those racked up last year by Conan O’Brien. It noted, however, that last week was an exception when Leno’s Tonight show topped O’Brien’s Tonight show when comparing the same […]

WILL JAY RECEIVE WALKING PAPERS?

Low ratings and high production costs have pushed NBC’s Tonight show with Jay Leno into the red, the New York Post reported today (Friday), citing unnamed insiders. “Leno May Be Next,” the newspaper said in a headline, suggesting that Comcast may replace Leno once it gains control of NBC Universal later this year. “You can’t […]