Posted on 09/29/2011 5:10:41 PM PDT by iowamark
The decline of televisions two big late-night stars was more noticeable than ever during televisions premiere week, as The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and the Late Show With David Letterman were both beaten by ABCs 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 didnt 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...
(Excerpt) Read more at mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com ...
The more lefty they become the worst their ratings get.
Who cares about late night network TV? Nobody is watching the Networks anymore anyhow.
Letterman’s a real piece of trash.
TV? What’s that? I heard it was from the last century.
Letterman can cram it hard. I have no opinion on Leno.
I used to watch the various late-night shows, off and on, for many years. But, if anything, it was when Letterman went off on making sleazy rape jokes towards Sarah Palin’s 13-year-old daughter, I stopped watching not only his show, but 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.
Plus, most of the people I’d want to hear interviewed have since died (’cept for Don Rickles).
Red Eye is better than all of them combined. I record it, then watch at 11:30PM...better than watching the unfunny O’baggers on late-night.
Why anyone would stay up and listen to either of those losers is beyond me.
I'm no Leno fan, but Bachmann was terrible in that appearance.
I stopped watching all the late-night shows a few years ago because the politics became unbearable to me.
At some point in the middle of the Bush adminstration the basic assumption of the all the late night monologues is that Republicans and conservatives are the “other” and outside the American mainstream. Meanwhile, apparently there is nothing funny about Democrats, ever.
So if I’m outside their “mainstream” they don’t need my viewership, ever.
The other he should be The other day he.
I haven't watched either one of them for years.
Yep, Letterman and Leno have told me over and over again that they do not want me as a viewer.
Leno and Letterman are running four years behind in their political jokes. People know it. They are oblivious.
I’m asleep then.
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