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CBS Reups Les Moonves Through 2015 
If you see Les Moonves skipping down the street, it's because there's yet more bad news for NBC Universal's Jeff Zucker, according to Nielsen live plus same day ratings for the week ending September 25th, the first week of the 2009-2010 fall TV season. Calling it a "banner premiere week for CBS late night", CBS publicists are crowing that David Letterman's Late Show beat NBC's Tonight Show in eyeballs as well as adults 18-49 and adults 25-54 for the first time since 2005. And the two shows tied in adults 18-34. Now, to be fair, Conan O'Brien did hit his head during a skit, went by ambulance to the hospital, and sat out Friday's show (a repeat aired). But, geez, Zucker can't even make the claims anymore than O'Brien is bringing in a younger audience than Letterman despite the hosts' age difference because Dave placed placed 1st on all five nights in adults 18-49. And I'm waiting for the inevitable last shoe to drop: that Conan's numbers are falling because of the weakness of the Jay Leno Show at 10 PM. (Hollywood expects a revolt by NBC affiliates any minute now when a month of numbers come in for their local news shows...) Remember, it was Jeff who Zuckered NBCU into switching hosts of The Tonight Show and cratering its longtime cash cow.
That's not the only good news for CBS. The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson also placed 1st in viewers, and adults 25-54, and tied in adults 18-49 with NBC's Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.
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The headline says it all. I don’t need any numbers to say that NBC Universal is in major trouble. We all seen them unless somebody has been living in a cave for the last four years. Jeff Zucker has ruined this network from sea to shining sea and I will not count such recent successes as the Beijing Olympics and Super Bowl XLIII (43) because they are events. Heck the Cowboys/Giants game a few weeks ago was an event. That is all NBC is nowadays, event programming.
I love Conan and he’s my favorite late night host, but you can’t compete with an institution like Letterman, end of story. The man has the “Top Ten” list for godsakes. He’s a legend
I’m actually optimistic about the future of Fallon’s show. He’s already loads better than he was when he started. Ferguson’s carved out a solid niche but I doubt he’ll be able to grow much beyond where he’s at now.
Guessing that THE JAY LENO SHOW will last an entire season before any cancellation/episode reduction decisions are made.
Not at this rate Terry. Jay is sucking everything down around him and when you have a black hole like his current show, the best thing to do is simply pull the plug on the entire network. You can bet that there will be more independent stations due to this debacle. It is much easier to show sports and strip older programming for five to seven nights a week over NBC programming. RIP NBC.
Jay Leno on Thursday Oct 1: A new low of 4.9 million total viewers. I’m not surprised the affiliates are upset.
Watching Letterman lately is like watching someone show off his dirty underwear night after night. My feelings have gone from embarrassed to nauseated to totally uninterested. And Leno reminds me of a relative who not only overstays for Thanksgiving, but he wants to take home all of the leftovers as well. I think Ferguson’s ratings will continue to strengthen and outgrow O’Brien and Fallon. I just hope Ferguson doesn’t buy into his own hype like his boss did.