CBS's 'Late Show'
pulls ahead in late night
Letterman notches first win over NBC's Leno
By Louisa Ada Seltzer
Mar 10, 2010
After one week, Jay Leno has fallen behind David Letterman in the demo NBC most cares about.
On Monday night, a week after Leno returned to "The Tonight Show," CBS's Letterman notched his first nightly victory over his old rival among adults 18-49, though he remained behind in total viewers.
It's likely that Letterman moved ahead among both last night, with all the publicity over his blackmailer pleading guilty, bringing an end to the sex scandal that surprised the country last fall.
On Monday, "Late Show with David Letterman" averaged a 1.3 adults 18-49 rating to "Tonight's" 1.1, according to Nielsen, after Leno won every night last week in the demo.
Among total viewers, Leno averaged 4.36 million to Letterman's 4.19 million, the closest the two shows have been since Leno's return.
In his first night back one week earlier, Leno drew 6.6 million viewers and a 1.6 rating. During the 2008-'09 season, Leno averaged 5.2 million viewers and a 1.1 rating.
Season to date, Letterman is averaging 4.2 million viewers and a 1.0 rating, both up slightly from last year.
So far Leno's two lowest-rated nights, Friday and this past Monday, have also been the nights where he had the lowest-rated 10 p.m. lead-in, a 1.7 on Friday and a 1.5 on Monday. Ironically, supporters of the ousted Conan O'Brien cited numbers such as those as one reason why the comedian did so poorly at 11:35 p.m., with "The Jay Leno Show" struggling at 10 p.m.
But this late-night battle will be playing out for weeks to come, when it will be more apparent whether the two comedians will trade leadership or if one will pull permanently ahead.
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