Posted on 07/24/2009 6:29:59 AM PDT by iowamark
ABC's "Nightline" stretches its #1 late night ranking to four weeks - which hasn't happened since 1995. With 3.74 million Total Viewers Nightline beat CBS' "Late Show" and NBC's "The Tonight Show." All three shows were in original productions — no re-runs.
"Nightline" also squeaked by Conan in A25-54 viewers with 1,473,000, to "The Tonight Show's" 1,466,000. Last week saw the lowest Total Viewer and A25-54 averages for "The Tonight Show" since the 1991/92 season.
"Nightline" was up 21% versus the same week last year and is up 14% among Total Viewers and up 3% among A25-54 viewers, season-to-date.
Show Network Age25-54 Total Viewers
Nightline ABC 1.47M 3.74M
Late Show CBS 1.33M 3.45M
Tonight Show NBC 1.47M 2.71M
I agree with your comment about Conan O’Brien being given “The Tonight Show”.
I was never a big O’Brien fan before and I’m even less of one after seeing him a few times. Back in the day, I used to watch Letterman but now his show seems forced and he seems like he’s turning into a crabby old man.
But here’s the bottom line.
Just as CBS will never admit that it erred in putting Katie Couric as lead news anchor, NBC will never admit it erred in giving “The Tonight Show” to Conan O’Brien.
On another thread I saw Harvard/Cambridge and the race biz therein referred to as a ‘closed system’ i.e. when no new thought or ideas are introduced the old ideas will simply get repeated and ossified.
Network TV is is a very similar situation. Broadcast Row is a very closed system with executives and so-called talent shuffling back and forth between buildings and organizations. It’s why sports broadcasts all feature the same BS that seems intended purely to annoy and repel the very fans that tuned in to begin with (promos, interviews, commercials, etc.).
This closed system - on an island literally and figuratively - produces newsreaders, hosts, and late night ‘comedians’ that generate reactions ranging from boredom to outright loathing.
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