COURIC TRIUMPH: 'TODAY' STAR PULLS GIANT RATINGS HOSTING 'TONIGHT'; NEARLY DOUBLES LENO DRAW

Drudge ^ | May 13, 2003 | NBC News

[Chirodoc]

NBC NEWS star Katie Couric has taken Hollywood and late night TV by storm, overnight NIELSEN ratings show, after the TODAY show host tried her hand at TONIGHT duties -- with stunning success!

Last night's 7.4 rating/18 share for Couric from Burbank is near record-levels for late night, with an audience size gauged at nearly double over last Monday night's standard Jay Leno run on NBC.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the flip, Jay Leno's hosting of Couric's TODAY on Monday morning maintained audience levels from last week, with a 5.9 rating/18 share.

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"Couric may, in fact, be the true heir to Johnny Carson!" joked one NBC executive from New York, who asked not to be named.

"Everything Katie touches turns to magic," said the source, "we are just so proud of her."

[Gone are the memories of Couric substituting for NBC NIGHTLY NEWS when Tom Brokaw took a sabbatical. During the summer fill-in, Couric scored one of the lowest ratings in the history of the broadcast.]

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Couric's hosting of TONIGHT reorganized audience levels across the board in late night, according to NIELSEN.

Immediately following Couric, NBC's CONAN popped to 2.9 rating/11 share, up more than 30% from last Monday.

CBS headliner David Letterman managed a 4.1 rating/10 share featuring the SURVIVOR winner, opposite Couric, down from the previous Monday's 4.8/12.

Developing...

[isthisnickcool]

(insert gross photo of college kid with beer hurling vomit out of his mouth and nose here)

[pgyanke]

It was Couric's idea from the start. Nothing more than an audition before the country. I'm sure she'll parley this into more money... either to stay where she is or to move to something else.

[TomGuy]

FoxNews' Shep Stewart is supposed to guest on The Tonite Show tonite.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

NBC wouldn't have gone along with the idea unless they believed there would be a bounce in the numbers.

[dead]

People were just hoping she'd bring back the anus-cam.

[TomGuy]

Yeh.

During Rosie's last season, Katie guested and indicated she'd eventually like to host a talk show. [I got the impression then that that she was maybe hoping Rosie would let her take over Rosie's show.]

[Wonder how Caroline Rhea's ratings are holding?]

[malakhi]

Meaningless. Over time, her numbers would almost surely fall below Leno's average.

[6ppc]

I caught about three minutes of it...threw up on the remote and had to clean it off before I could turn her off ;^( She was really lousy...jokes sucked and timing was terrible. These ratings are purely due to the novelty factor.

[oldsalt]

I watched about half the show for curiosity's sake, probably most viewers did, hence the big rating.

My advice to the lady, based on what I saw, is.....don't give up your day job.

[CaptRon]

Most people watched because they didn't want to miss the potential train wreck.

[Consort]

From what I saw, she wisely stayed away from Left-wing rhetoric. She should keep that in mind.

[eastsider]

Removing the modesty panel from the desk was my favorite part of the act : )

[brewcrew]

Good God. The end days are near.

[Chirodoc]

lol

[CaptRon]

Katie guested and indicated she'd eventually like to host a talk show

So what's the Today Show, hard news?!

[LandofLincoln]

From a Market Timer ... "One day does not make a trend."

[Chirodoc]

Yes another sign the apocolypse is upon us.

[Republican Red]

Who were her guests? Last thing I heard was that she demanded that the staff book Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez or the entire cast of Friends for the show, and that when they were unsuccessful Couric became "really angry."

[ntnychik]

She had to rely on perky to get through it. What's with ignoring the fans at the beginning? Leno always makes a big deal of leaping into the crowd to high five as many as he can reach. Oh, I'm admitting I watched it...