Obama's Appearance Should Give Letterman A Ratings Boost

David Letterman has won exactly one night in the ratings since he and Jay Leno returned from strike-imposed hiatus. But it's a good bet he's about to win another one on Thursday night, when Barack Obama stops by the Ed Sullivan Theater to read the Top-10 list.

Obama is a dream guest for Letterman: He's big on Facebook and MySpace, and does particularly well with young males — once considered Letterman's core demo.

Letterman's good for Obama, too: Late night shows are an important part of running any national political campaign. They're humanizing, if you can pull them off, and they reach undecideds and people who might not otherwise vote. In any other year, you'd see Democrats on every late night show they could get on, from NBC's "Tonight Show," to Comedy Central's "Daily Show" and "Colbert Report." Even HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher" would be a draw.

But since Democrats won't cross a Writers Guild of America picket line, Letterman has been the only game in town since the strike began Nov. 5. That's why Letterman has had Sen. Hillary Clinton by video, former Sen. John Edwards on Tuesday and now Obama. It's also why Leno has had to settle for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

But Letterman's advantage among Democrats hasn't translated into gains in the only polls the TV networks care about: ratings. Despite a big advantage in guests, Letterman has remained significantly behind Leno in the ratings. Over the first two weeks, Leno averaged nearly 5.5 million viewers and Letterman averaged nearly 4.3 million, according to Nielsen. But that should change tonight.

Comments

[tkk]

Funny, I read it was a total bust.

[MyThought]

Oh, and the suptle using of Oprah. Fact is, some people are getting Oprah "overload" - I'm so sick of hearing about her I don't even watch her show anymore.

All she does is recycle themes over and over and over again and throw some over-hyped "sponsor paid for gifts".

[independentrepublicrat]

The Obama top ten was a taped video segment by a contracted camera crew on location in SC. So Dave wasn't really talking to Barack even as it was being taped. Number one was the only real funny; Dave's writers don't really earn their pay IMO.

[resonate]

Thats the only reason Im watching Letterman tonight. And its raining like mad in California so I cant sleep.

[kylie]

Will make it a point to catch Obama on "Letterman" tonight.

Bored with the polls on CNN/MSNBC that race-bait and give phony stats regarding Obama, Clinton and, Edwards.

The GOP must be happy-between Chris Matthews blatant attempts to "Crown Clinton as "Miss Primary", Carlson's inane comments on "Obama's problems with drawing other minorities to vote for him(in Carlson's mind?)and, the Clinton's attempt to pull a Karl Rove "campaign", network news is looking very stale.

Do we really want to nominate a candidate the GOP want to so badly challenge? Remember Kerry?

[KrazyKat]

Count me as AMAZED that Leno gets better ratings than Letterman. I really don't understand it.

I'd watch Letterman more myself, except for the never-ending length and amount of commercial breaks -- it's really too much, particularly in that time-slot. I'd enjoy Dave more often if I had Tivo, I suppose.