Late Night Icons (Leno, Letterman) See Their Ratings Slide

NY Times ^ | September 29, 2011 | Bill Carter

[iowamark]

The decline of television’s two big late-night stars was more noticeable than ever during television’s premiere week, as “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” and the “Late Show With David Letterman” were both beaten by ABC’s “Nightline” — a first during that week.

“Nightline” was up slightly from last year, increasing its viewership by 7 percent, but the story was in the falloff for both Mr. Leno on NBC and Mr. Letterman on CBS. The two late-night lions saw their audience, especially the younger segments of viewers, drop sharply.

Mr. Letterman lost a total 560,000 viewers from last year, a 15 percent decline; Mr. Leno lost 160,000, or 4 percent. But among the 18- to 49-year-old audience that many advertisers seek to reach, Mr. Leno was down even more, 20 percent (270,000 viewers), while Mr. Letterman was down 16 percent (200,000 viewers)...

CBS also had some relatively strong numbers for 10 p.m. shows, including “Hawaii Five-0,” “Unforgettable” and “C.S.I.,” though that didn’t seem to help Mr. Letterman. NBC, meanwhile, had finished third almost across the board at 10 p.m., with “The Playboy Club” on Monday night especially weak. Only “Dateline” on Friday gave Mr. Leno any real benefit from the 10 p.m. hour.

The one piece of good news for Mr. Letterman was how close he finished to Mr. Leno in the 18-to-49 audience. Both shows had a 0.8 rating, which is their lowest ever for a premiere week, but Mr. Letterman trailed Mr. Leno by only 16,000 viewers among that group. A year ago, he trailed by just under 100,000...

[Vide]

I’ve never understood the appeal of *any* late night variety/talk show. The Johnny Carson Show started out on the wrong side of the shark and things have got worse ever since.

Really, who ever watched this cr4p?

[1010RD]

Can you support that with links? I don’t recall him ever being funny.

[decimon]

...especially the younger segments of viewers...

I seem to recall the same happening to Carson. It became decidedly un-hip to watch the Tonight Show. And now there's YouTube.

[Calvin Locke]

I stopped watching Letterman on September 11, 2002. He was
arrogantly dumb enough to have Bill Clinton on in the first place,
let alone a year after the Muslim attack.

I lasted maybe 15 seconds at most, and have rarely even stopped on
his show since then.

[bicyclerepair]

REDEYE is better than all late night shows combined. especially when Courtney Friel is on

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Network TV viewership has been in decline for years and won’t plateau for a few more. And Leno and Letterman are old. NBC should have stuck with Conan, but in the long run it wouldn’t make much difference - late night talk shows on network TV were a 20th century phenomenon.

[Last Dakotan]

Let's see if he trashes Cain the way he did Bachmann.

He pulled the shameless "let's practice one set of questions in rehearsal, and ask another set on the air" act on Bachmann.

[TaraP]

I use to watch Leno, but now I just turn on Netflix/Roku and watch Dana Scully and Muldur..

The X-Files....

They have all the 200 episodes...

[longfellow]

Mr. Letterman lost a total 560,000 viewers from last year........probably had something to do with that little klintonesque # Dave?
So that’s why you went left so fast, had to get on someone’s good side and you knew the Right would shun you.

[lazypadawan]

The whole debacle with Conan O’Brien’s stint on NBC drove his fans, who are the young and hip viewers advertisers crave, to follow Conan over to TBS.

I’m of course a member of Team RedEye.

[rcrngroup]

I really just stopped watching ALL of those shows. I never even take the slightest glimpse of them anymore, and I haven’t missed them a single bit.

You & me both. In fact I am seriously considering cancelling my Charter cable TV altogether. I never watch TV any longer, and the only reason I keep cable TV is for the sports --- but it is harder to watch even NFL any longer because the liberal socialist bias & politically correct pandering to (especially blacks) is just getting sickening. In all honesty, TV is a piece of crap.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Leno and Letterman do have their work cut out for them with all of those “Paid Programming” programs that they have to go up against each night. I mean, how can you beat 50 minutes of the Sham Wow guy? LOL! And that 45 minutes of the 120 CD “70s Music” set. Wow!

[The Cajun]

Old Carson replays would beat both those losers totally.

[abigailsmybaby]

I’ve always hated Letterman. Used to watch Leno when he first started but got bored with him after a couple of years. I’d rather watch re-runs of the Johnny Carson Show.

[Newtoidaho]

Letterman is a nasty, filthy pervert and the last time I saw Leno he looked completely bored and disinterested in what he was doing, appeared bloated/constipated and said not one funny thing in the 5 minutes I was able to stomach watching his useless show.

[decimon]

REDEYE is better than all late night shows combined. especially when Courtney Friel is on

I don't watch any of them so I can't say.

[libertarian27]

I keep saying they have to put RedEye on at 11pm - or 11:30 - now’s the time, these guys are tanking - time to sweep in....

If you have a DirectTV - hit the ‘active’ button and see what everyone’s watching - amazing how many people don’t watch networks anymore

[tlb]

It’s not the hosts. It’s the guests. People would tune in late-night to see people like Sammy Davis chatting with Carson. Fewer care to see some Kardassian girl.

[Impy]

I used to watch Leno, years ago. I’ve come to conclude he’s not very funny.

Oh the days when these Late night shows were relevant. So long gone.

[Varsity Flight]

AAANNNNDDDD HEREEEE s Eastern Block Govt. Beltway TV!