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I’m told that on tonight’s Late Late Show (which taped Thursday night), host Craig Ferguson takes the piss out of NBC’s press release yesterday declaring Conan the “King of Late Night”. Also, Letterman beat O’Brien again last night in the overnights: 3.5 to 3.0. That’s a healthy margin no matter what the key demos show.
As for Ferguson, during his 2-minute opener, he said from behind the camera: “Ladies and gentleman….The King of Late Night TV,” then jumped in front of the camera. ”That’s right, I am the new King of Late Night TV. I can hear what you are saying, ‘Craig many, many, people get more viewers than you, lots of people in late night, nearly everyone in late night, gets more viewers than you — how can you be the King of Late Night?’ Cause I have a plan! I put out a press release saying I was the new King Of Late Night. What constitutes royalty in late night television? Saying you are! And as your king I demand you disrobe.”
- Conan Gives NBC Big Lead In Adult Demos
- David Letterman Tops Conan O’Brien In Last Night’s Ratings
- NBC Edicts Already Killing Jay Leno Show By Favoring Conan
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Craig Ferguson is the best late night host presently on the tube. Period!!! Consistently hilarious.
Conan isn’t “Tonight Show” material – should have stuck with writing. And he’s done nothing in the first 2 weeks to convince me I’m wrong. I’m sure he has his niche, but it ain’t the Tonight Show audience. They’ll migrate to Leno’s new show and go to bed after the local news. Tivo Ferguson.
Conan’s other late night show sucked too….and when he brought back that bozo Andy Richter as “host”. What a Maroon. Best thing Conan did for the other show was dump that slob….
I still miss Carson!!!!
Letterman was kinda funny 20 years ago, but he’s worn out the schtick….Not funny Dave. You should have got out ten years ago and take Schafer with you. He’s an extremely talented musician and arranger, but he’s mega obnoxious!!!
One has to watch Craig Ferguson before you realize that Kudos to Letterman for having the faith in Freguson. The man is funny, not afraid to make fun of himself. He thinks on his feet and genuinely loves the commaraderie with the audience. Jimmy (Fallon) needs a little more time to get comfortable with his audience. But that comes with time.. Just look at Jimmy on Abc…Craig is seriously taking on the older crowd with an irreverance used more commonly with much younger crowd.. Ferguson is definitely the king of llate night comedy…
Craig Ferguson is the funniest hands down, Even on a bad night he is better than those other sticks in the MUD.
I think Jay was gracious to have the man that is forcing him out of a job he loves. Jay’s audience are waiting till fall and see that Frat Boy Conan fall on his face like a wilted pansy.
Hey Networks, needs ratings, snag Craig. HBO you could do a show based around his talents, You gave Dennis Miller one of the funniest man around. But his words and references were to high brow for his audience. In fact I didn’t understand some of them myself but he is unique. Craig is more unique because he is Funny, sexy and a great interviewer.
Like Caroline, I am wondering how much of this is because of the Palin thing. Letterman is getting so much publicity on this, even on NBC’s Today show which interviewed Palin on this, and he is got mentioned every hour on MSNBC Friday, not to mention all of MSNBC’s prime time shows. People must surely be tuning in to see the next salvo.
I think it’ll be close between Conan and Dave when all the dust settles. Dave’s ratings have gone up a bit lately because of the Palin controversy. Conan’s ratings have been steady at around 3 since his debut. Although it’s pretty stupid for nbc to declare Conan the king when both of them are so close.
Conan has been coming out on top for most of the last two weeks.
Not true. Conan came out on top in his first week, due to all the publicity. During the second week, Conan won two days (by very slim margins), and Dave won two days (on Thursday by a half a rating point – larger than Conan’s margin of victory earlier in the week). We’ll see what happens on Friday, but either Dave and Conan will tie for the second week, or Dave will win outright. Conan’s ratings for his second week are 25% below Jay’s average this year. So much for the new “King of Late Night”.
And, oh yeah – Ferguson easily has the best, freshest show of the bunch.
Letterman & Rev. Wright: Two old, gray haired men done in by their own words…
redmenace, i don’t think that defending your 14 year old daughter from attack by a bitter and likely dangerous old pervert’s comments on national television is anything more or less than honorable and is frankly what every good parent would do.
my guess from the rest of your post is that you’re likely an unemployed wannabe male comedy writer who, like all the comics and comedy writers i have known, was probably a huge dork in high school, had trouble speaking with women and likely didn’t get laid until after college when you either bought it or were “lucky” enough to find a girl at a bar who was so drunk that she did you the courtesy of passing out thereby giving you the opportunity to finally and officially become a man. hopefully for her (and you), she doesn’t remember a thing. menace is right.
I have a plan! I put out a press release saying I was the new King
Hey, it worked for the King of All Media. (Come to think of it, whatever happened to him?)
52%,
Dave dated Merrill Markoe for a long time. She was his head writer on Late Night and created Stupid Pet Tricks among other long-running bits. Why was he hanging out with her if he hated women? Why was she his head writer?
Sorry he won’t hire you.
David Letterman better take comfort NOW while he is still on the air. Who knows by next week he just might be another has being late night supposedly “sexually deranged” comedian who thinks making jokes about rape and such of 14 year old girls or young girls period and insulting women as just flighty sluts just doesn’t make the grade anymore not even for a Liberal comedian. Hell, Jay Leno might just wine up with the Letterman slot at CBS. Now wouldn’t that be funny.
The sad fact is that demographics ARE more important than overall ratings. That’s why Leno and his over age 55 following are gone from Tonight. Conan pulling a 3 with a big chunk of the 18-49 demo is success, and worth more money in ad sales to the networks than Letterman pulling a 3.5 overall with lower 18-49 demos. Calling him the King of Late Night was in poor taste, maybe “King of the Demo That Ad Buyers Give A Shit About” would be more appropriate.
Because you like Dave or like Jay, you can’t change the rules. I despise NBC, they’re idiots, but giving Conan (and I’m not a fan) the Tonight Show makes complete sense. If you don’t like it talk to the sponsors who are more than willing to pay higher rates for shows that pull younger viewers. When Conan has higher ratings among those under 49, he’s considered the winner.
Michelle T — How many head writers has Dave had since Merrill Markoe left in 1988? How many of them were women?
So much for your argument.
By the way, I’m not a comedy writer so I have no interest in working for him — although it’s hard to argue that Dave uses any comedy writers anymore.
Freud, who said I was a Conan fan? Maybe you should regrow your penis, it’s must be hard living a lie.
nice try red, defending your daughter is one thing, trying to make Letterman’s joke into a attack on womanhood is another.Palin has spent more time on the television hamming it up, then she spent teaching her elder daughter the proper use of a condom;I mean practicing abstinence.The rest of your post was a weak attempt at an insult, which made me laugh that someone would actually waste time typing the same unoriginal and unfunny youtuber attack.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present Sarah Palin’s constituency:
“Must be all those misogynist statutory rapists tuning in to see their hero Dave demean some more women and validate their sexual attraction to 14 year old girls. I bet Dave wins that demographic for a while (or at least until Jimmy Kimmel decides to reclaim it).”
“Lettermen and his precious ego had to be fellated. Doesn’t surprise his b!tch Craig would lead the rush. ”
“Hey “Redmenace” You should check for polyps while your head is so far up your a–.”
“Letterman doesn’t seem to realize how creepy he is, when he makes sexual references about children.”
“Letterman & Rev. Wright: Two old, gray haired men done in by their own words…”
“redmenace, i don’t think that defending your 14 year old daughter from attack by a bitter and likely dangerous old pervert’s comments on national television is anything more or less than honorable and is frankly what every good parent would do.”
Polite, classy, intelligent – and not-at-all obtuse!
Kimmel’s head writer is a female and it’s by far the worst of the late night shows in both ratings and in originality. It really is just awful in every way, unless you count the bands.
Maybe late night shows just aren’t were the ladies creatively excel? Do they have to be equal in everything?
Comment by fez — June 12, 2009 @ 11:48 pm
Hey Fez–
Obviously spelling (it’s where, not ‘were’) & logic aren’t areas you excel in; does that mean all men are sexist, ignorant troglodytes like you? Of course not.
You’re so inferior.
Hate to say “I told ya’ so”, but “I told ya’ so”! NBC (Nothing But Crap) has made a big mis-judgement. Conan doesn’t have the chops for The Tonight Show. Letterman will continue to see his audience grow, while Conan’s will shrink. Jimmy Fallon is a train wreck, while Craig Ferguson will also see his audience grow. Jimmy Kimmel will also see his share grow on ABC.
Like I said, NBC has made a huge mistake.
I know Ferguson is beating the tar out of Fallon, ashis days are about to be numbered and hoping ferguson can take that momentum and bump Kimmel right off as well. Conan is NOT the new king of late night as NBC touts it, as it’s NBC trying desperately to save face over there since nothing is really working over there, thanks to the buffoon management they have.
I think Conan will do just fine, and as for the Letterman/Palin “controversy,” ooh please, are Sarah’s fifteen minutes up yet?
Women make up the vast majority of the viewing audience, something like 80% of the audience for sitcoms is female, and it would not shock me to see that replicated among Dramas.
TV is in trouble because it’s alienated men. Nearly all the advertising is female-oriented (and hostile to men), a dumb move given later marriages and more and more purchasing decisions being done by men.
Getting men to watch is not “fratboy” antics, it’s smart business. NBC is a nearly all-female network in prime-time, extremely hostile to men with female-skewing reality stuff and things like Mercy. Which no straight guy would watch.
Late Night is still mostly a guy’s audience, so having mostly male writers is nothing unusual or “bad.” I don’t imagine there’s too many Whites working at BET or too many men on Lifetime, Oxygen, or WE.
Conan’s experienced, a known quantity, it’s unlikely he’ll hold onto the audience which is older and less desirous of “edgy” stuff than Conan’s producers/writers think they are. Besides Triumph most of Conan’s stuff is lame. Kimmel can be bizarre (Pam Anderson and that kid rapper on a trike come to mind) and hilarious in interviews, but is even more erratic than Conan. Letterman’s borrowing/using Ernie Kovacs stunts got old fifteen years ago. If not twenty. His time wasting schtick is dumb and annoying. As a late night viewer, I prefer Ferguson the most. He tells the jokes, straight up no chaser, they are funnier than Jay Leno’s, and he doesn’t waste time getting to the comedy.
What most people want is about 10-15 minutes of jokes, go to sleep, if the guest is cool they’ll stay up and watch it. It’s not rocket science. Its still mostly male. Shrug. Those are the constraints.
Last night on the O’Reilly Factor a PR CEO predicts that in the long run David Letterman is going to lose viewers over his Palin remarks. Another PR mistake is that CBS remain silent on the issue between Palin and Letterman while they duked out this week. So could Letterman and CBS be the big losers when the wind settles? Yes. Becouse his apology didn’t ring like a geniuine apology. Ironcially on MSNBC Ed Schultz tried to defend Letterman but it backfired on him. His guest she ripped him to shreds on the issue. Not to mention during her interview on CNN Wolf Blitzer agreed with Gov Palin on the very same subject. Word is Joey Behar wants Palin on the View that’s according to Politico.Com.
Redmenace,
You’re an illiterate ignoramus who can’t form a lucid thought. You also need to learn grammar and spelling.
Ironically, you are the target demo for late night television.
Letterman is creepy and I do think its matters that there are no women writers on these shows.
Why would it not?
Some network should just show old Johhny Carson reruns in that time spot.
NBC should have left good enough alone.
Jay Leno was entertaining without being creepy and
full of hate like Mr Letterman.
I hope Conan gets better.
I doubt if Steve Allen was alive today he would be proud of how downhill Letterman has gone now that he has millions he doesn’t have to try and be funny.
Read a mostly boring top ten, insult people he doesn’t like than act like a dirty old man interview young starlets.
Perhaps when the Palin/Letterman feud balloon pops, ol’ Dave can make some nasty comments about the Obama children. Oh wait, that’s a family with (D) behind their name…
whiskey says: “TV is in trouble because it’s alienated men. Nearly all the advertising is female-oriented (and hostile to men), a dumb move given later marriages and more and more purchasing decisions being done by men.”
Oooooh, does that mean that soon I won’t ever have to watch a male erectile dysfunction commercial again? No more Viva Viagra or Smilin’ Bob would vastly improve television.