David Letterman, "Tonight Show" Ratings Race Closest Since 2005

NEW YORK — David Letterman's squabble with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin gave his "Late Show" a ratings boost last week, but new NBC rival Conan O'Brien retains the upper hand after two weeks as "Tonight Show" host.

Overall for the week of June 8, "Tonight" won in total viewers as well as among such demographic groups as adults 18-49 and 18-34, according to Nielsen Media Research figures released Thursday.

Even so, CBS' "Late Show" scored total-viewer victories on three nights last week, as controversy (and viewer interest) heated up following Letterman's racy joke about a Palin daughter. The joke was delivered as part of Letterman's June 8 monologue.

Last week's Tuesday, Thursday and Friday editions of "Late Show" edged out "Tonight" in viewers.

"Late Show" also edged out "Tonight" in household ratings, 2.7 vs. 2.6 for the week. (A ratings point represents 1,145,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.5 million TV homes.)

For the week, "Late Show" had 3.67 million viewers, separated from front-runner "Tonight" with its 3.77 million viewers by just 100,000 viewers. For "Late Show," it was the closest competitive position to "Tonight" since December 2005, Nielsen said.

Until longtime host Jay Leno departed "Tonight" on May 29, the NBC late show had been the traditional ratings leader at 11:35 p.m.

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CBS is a division of CBS Corp. NBC is a unit of General Electric.

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On the Net:

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Comments

[Pleneras]

Do we really need to care?

[azind]

The Olive Garden Restaurant has decided to stand by Palin. They are
pulling their ads from The Letterman Show to show their support for
one of the biggest spewers of hate in this Country, Sarah Palin.. I emailed them
to let them know I'll no longer eat at their restaurant. These hypocrites
have no problem with the dangerous hateful comments Palin made
about our President. No problem with Leno who made similar jokes
or with Limbaugh or McCain who made degrading comments about
Chelsea Clinton.

[spiritpony1]

don't fret tooo much-----most of our ilk do NOT eat at the O.G. anyhoooo(----gave it 3 shots while traveling, since didn't know--------never again------food only equal to Denny's and Applebee's­---------g­roan---

[SoCalNick]

aww man... Don't Diss Denny's and Applebee's like THAT.

[hapaglloyd]

Olive gardens is terrible ,they make lousy pasta. I am from New York ,I give them bad marks. They put this thick sauce in the pasta and ruins it.

[unity08]

Yep, overpriced and boring food.

[Charity]

i stopped eating at olive garden years ago. no big loss for me since i never go. but both olive garden and embassy/hilton are certainly showing their true colors, aren't they? i'm planning a weekend vacation and uhhhhh - i passed right on by the hilton recommendations on the net. apparently, they don't want my business.

[punkingale]

I wish I had known this before I ate lunch at the Olive Garden today. Now I wish I had gone to Logan's Roadhouse.

[Kelly Laraia]

Logan's is better.

[d45]

Republicans love the Garden... big portions of stuff.

[2008CaliforniaFan]

Meanwhile.­.. " Governor Grifter " has put herself back in the News today.

Her, and her Lawyers, won't disclose the amount of 'gifts ' she has received..­.
(none of our business I guess) Ssshhhh...­..

Mudflats has a good story.
http://www.themudflats.net/2009/06/18/palin-wont-release-amount-of-gifts-because-its-a-secret-shhhhh/

[kdlaiusa]

Palin jokes will return soon, stay tuned to Letterman. He ain't letting that woman have her way that easily.

[MalloMel]

He's waiting for her to expose her jugular again, and she will, because she is a Bush kind of idiot, and she doesn't have the cover of the presidency.

[barackobama4prez]

Dave will take over. Conan is not funny enough.

[sonoffestus]

Was Conan ever funny? Actually, I find that all of the late night hosts are pretty lame. They all have a good night or two once in a while, but there's nothing to warrant tuning in everynight, but then it's just an opinion. If you enjoy it, knock yourselves out people.Now­, if they were showing re-runs of the original Twilight Zone, the beer and popcorn would come out.

[TheDisenfranchisedVoter]

Right....

I suggest rethinking your outlook. Conan is plenty funny, youre sense of humor obviously is just flat out horrible.

[Charity]

you know, it's really pathetic when nbc has to hire shills to post for conan.

[TheDisenfranchisedVoter]

your*

[albanianmomforobama]

I agree with you. Never liked Connan. Loved Jay. But I am loving David know!

[BocaMom]

See, it pays to apologize when you are wrong.
And he was wrong disparaging women.
Even if it was Palin and her teenage daughters!

[MzTexas]

If that's the case, then why wasn't Palin demanding apologies from every other comedian who has told similar, if not worse, jokes. This little episode had nothing to do with Palin's daughters, she showed she didn't care about them when she exploited Bristol's condition at the RNC. This episode was about Palin.

[noaxe397]

To answer your question, I honestly don't think Palin knew of the other jokes. She was told about Letterman's remarks by her main "brain" and supporter John Ziegler.

[CJWebber]

I think she cared more about the slutty flight attendant joke than anything else. She's just using the teenage daughter as an excuse to act outraged.

It's OK to call her hot, but don't cross the line with slutty.

[mollymac]

She is nutz!

[countfloyd]

It isn't a huge shift in ratings either way. I think the viewership will ebb and flow based on guests.

[countfloyd]

The Late Show is up slightly while the Tonight Show is down some. I think the ratings will go up and down based on guests more than a Palin factor.

[whocan]

Just wait, Embassy Suites and Olive Garden will also benefit

[MzTexas]

Olive Garden has denied the reports that they pulled any advertising because of this ridiculous stunt by Palin.

What Letterman said was bad taste, but what Conan, Leno, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher and a host of other comedians have said is worse . . . this wasn't about Palin standing up for her daughter, it was about political expediency. The polls were showing that nobody really thought she was a leader of the GOP . . . she had to do SOMETHING to get her name back in the news and in true Palin fashion, she had to use her children. The woman is DISGUSTING and one of the WORST excuses for a mother I've ever seen. The day she paraded her pregnant, unwed teenaged daughter in front of MILLIONS of people . . . that was the day I made my decision not to vote for McCain.

[MzTexas]

Olive Garden has DENIED the reports that they have withdrawn their advertising. Go to their website.

[MalloMel]

They did no such thing.

[Kindheart]

It has nothing to do with Palin, it is because Conan is terrible. I have stopped watching the Tonight show since he started. Poor decision making at NBC to take Jay Leno off.

[ladyrefined2000]

who the hell watches this crap at night?....­.....there are so many other choices!

[Charity]

i don't have cable. and i am a long time letterman fan.

[LucyBelle97]

I wouldn't say terrible, just very different. But I'm of an age where I fondly look back and remember Johnny, and Jay was no clone of Johnny, either.

[punkingale]

Jay Leno announced in 2004 that he was retiring in 2009 and Conan would take over. His retirement surely didn't last long. I wondered why in the hell he would announce this five years early.

[GiannaX]

Jay never said he was retiring 2009. NBC made the decision.

[swan1]

Dave will soon take over Conan. Conan is so hard to watch , and he is NOT FUNNY.

[pangursperson]

I think Conan is just out of place. I used to love watching his show. Maybe the move to LA plus the difference in the vibe of an earlier show is discombobulating him. In any case, You Twit Face was brilliant :-D

[TheDisenfranchisedVoter]

I can understand claiming that Conan doesn't connect with you or whatnot but the simple fact is that when anyone makes a statement such as Conan is flat out not funny they show how absolutely ridiculous they are and also demonstrate that their sense of humor is severely lacking.

[dillydawg]

Best late night show on CBS. Must see and continues to be.

[TheDisenfranchisedVoter]

Yea on CBS.--Not much competition there.

[TKDMike]

palin is a TRAIN WRECK and people have to watch her make a FOOL of herself AGAIN!

[albanianmomforobama]

Palin=Lohan!! Enough said.