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David Letterman's 'Late Show' posts poor ratings
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3ib33bedc7fa5a4469b9cdbadc564de439 ^ | Hollywood Reporter

Posted on 06/28/2008 10:08:40 AM PDT by WilliamReading

NEW YORK -- CBS' "The Late Show With David Letterman" tied its lowest-ever adults 18-49 rating last week.

"Late Show" averaged a 0.9 rating in adults 18-49, Nielsen Media Research said. That is its lowest ever for an original since the program premiered in 1993, though not the lowest for the show: It has hit 0.9 several times, most recently in late December when it was in reruns because of the WGA strike.

Meanwhile, "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" averaged a 1.3 rating in the demo, its biggest margin of victory against "Late Show" in four months. "Late Show" tied for second place in the demo rating with ABC's "Nightline," though "Nightline" had more viewers in the demo. Both "Tonight" and "Late Show" showed drops in viewers and the demo.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: leno; letterman; nonewideasince1995; samebitsoverandover
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To: Former Proud Canadian

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave, we are sick and tired of Bush and Cheney bashing.
I don’t watch anymore...


41 posted on 06/28/2008 11:20:09 AM PDT by Shady (The Fairness Doctrine is ANYTHING but fair!!!!)
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To: T Lady
But he couldn't hold a candle to Carson at all.

I disagree, he was well on his way to replacing Carson. He got screwed by NBC and that was the end of his magic. He would have been the perfect fit for an era which was passing Carson by. Carson left at the right time; he was getting stale.

42 posted on 06/28/2008 11:22:10 AM PDT by stravinskyrules (Why is it that whenever I hear a piece of music I don't like, it's always by Villa-Lobos?)
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To: WilliamReading

Letterman...overpaid, underworked, thorougly unfunny.
He’s a has been who’s ‘has’ has ‘been’ gone for a long time now. He looks too sour on screen now in his older years.


43 posted on 06/28/2008 11:22:44 AM PDT by tflabo (Truth or tyranny)
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To: WilliamReading

Letterman has always had that elitist “if you don’t think my jokes funny it is because you simply are not cool enough to understand it” attitude. I never thought he was funny. At all. Too full of himself and his brand of esoteric ultraliberal “humor.”


44 posted on 06/28/2008 11:29:21 AM PDT by informavoracious (Big Sistah Danielle Allen is watching YOU, FReeper!)
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To: WilliamReading
Absolutely correct.

This, coupled with the fact that he hates Republicans, is probably what has caused his downfall.

Someone once posted here that he knew Letterman before he was famous, and implied the guy has serious psychological problems.

45 posted on 06/28/2008 11:30:37 AM PDT by Prole (Pray for the families of Chris and Channon.)
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To: WilliamReading

I quit watching the show after Letterman got so partisan about Obama over the past few months.

He no longer even attempts to give an appearance of even-handed comedy any more, just constant sniping against McCain’s age.


46 posted on 06/28/2008 11:38:51 AM PDT by wildbill ( FR---changing history by erasing it from memory.)
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To: nuconvert
I think his political views - which he’s been voicing more - are really turning people off.

I switched off Letterman sometime around early December 2000 and have not wasted time watching his show since.

Personally, I think he is a clueless moron.

47 posted on 06/28/2008 11:45:21 AM PDT by A message
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To: WilliamReading


Dave lost his mojo.
48 posted on 06/28/2008 11:52:59 AM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: Coffee200am
I'd watch Letterman occasionally, until he had Bill Clinton on for the first anniversary of 9/11. That lasted about 10 seconds, at best.

It has been hardly ever. I watched him get snotty with Bill O'Reilly, and maybe a dozen times more, but just for a segment at most.

That's about it.

Never heard back from CBS concerning my complaint about Clinton on 9/11/2002 either.

Not even an acknowledgment.

49 posted on 06/28/2008 11:54:01 AM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: WilliamReading

Something tells me that after Jay Leno officially retires from The Tonight Show, Jay will still be making a bunch of T.V. appearances on a variety of talk shows for many years to come. How can we miss you, Jay, when you won’t go away? At least when Johnny Carson officially retired, Johnny really DID retire.


50 posted on 06/28/2008 12:03:28 PM PDT by johnthebaptistmoore (Vote for conservatives AT ALL POLITICAL LEVELS! Encourage all others to do the same on November 4!)
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To: WilliamReading
This guy has always been a waste......just like the much worse Gonad after Jay Leno...now there is a POS with no talent at all....Gonad makes David look like Dennis Miller......

No David has only ever just been an alternative to Jay, never anything on his own, and those clowns in his band.....

51 posted on 06/28/2008 12:07:40 PM PDT by The Wizard (DemonRATS: enemies of America)
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To: WilliamReading

Should CBS go back to the days of Paley?


52 posted on 06/28/2008 12:10:50 PM PDT by racing fan
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To: stravinskyrules
Letterman was heavily influenced by Allen but was in no way a clone. Letterman influenced a generation of comedians with his, sarcastic, biting and knowing edge....everyone copped it.

Maybe people are tired of cynical, sarcastic humor. How many times can one say a knowing, cynical "oh, yeah" and and that is somehow original and funny? Maybe cynicism has burned itself out? I have flipped the dial past TV sitcoms and it seems most of the humor involves the characters insulting each other and calling each other juvenile names. I think we have reached the point where what humor there is is quite ill, and wit is nowhere to be found.

53 posted on 06/28/2008 12:17:25 PM PDT by Wilhelm Tell (True or False? This is not a tag line.)
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To: Kirkwood
indeed you speak the truth.....When we had the old show in Manhattan, "Off To 'C' The Wizard", 1974-76 we were the ones that changed TV and TV's approach to itself.....I blew the opportunity to do SNL, it wasn't called that at the time because it was just in development, but we were ruling Manhattan during those years, and the networks watched us and copied everything we did....the control room shots, comedy aimed at adult audiences, etc...everyone copied what was being done a bunch of us, and the networks, right up the street "liberated" every bit of it....then they got a "safe" guy like david to come on and do a cleaned up version of what we were doing in a very "unsafe" way......

The stories I could tell you....

54 posted on 06/28/2008 12:20:18 PM PDT by The Wizard (DemonRATS: enemies of America)
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To: loreldan

Is he the English guy, I agree...funny cat


55 posted on 06/28/2008 12:21:57 PM PDT by The Wizard (DemonRATS: enemies of America)
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To: WilliamReading

Leno is actually a much better standup comedian than Carson, but Carson was the best variety talk show host ever. His range of knowledge extended to many areas. Plus the Art Fern sketches have never been equaled.


56 posted on 06/28/2008 12:35:13 PM PDT by driftless2
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To: Wilhelm Tell
Maybe cynicism has burned itself out?

Untempered cynicism most definitively. The cynic has to be subject to negative consequences.

If you've ever listened to Jack Benny's old radio show, he'd always come out on the short end of whatever he had instigated, usually coming full circle by the same means, as an example.

The closest Letterman got to that, that I know of, was Penn & Teller dumping a couple of thousand cockroaches on him.

57 posted on 06/28/2008 1:08:33 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: WilliamReading

The only reason Letterman gets ratings at all is the bump from the clips “Special Report with Brit Hume” shows periodically. If it were not for Fox, he would have no ratings at all...


58 posted on 06/28/2008 1:12:39 PM PDT by Bean Counter (Stout Hearts.....)
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To: Former Proud Canadian

“I don’t watch him any more because I can’t get past his liberal attitudes.”

Same here.


59 posted on 06/28/2008 1:34:01 PM PDT by Brilliant
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To: Former Proud Canadian

“I think Letterman is really funny. He falls down, however, with his obvious liberalism. He knows nothing about politics. He should stick to being a funny man. I don’t watch him any more because I can’t get past his liberal attitudes.”

I agree completely. Letterman is so much funnier than Leno and has better writers but his obvious liberalism turned me off so I turned him off.


60 posted on 06/28/2008 1:46:00 PM PDT by peggybac (Tolerance is the virtue of believing in nothing)
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