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.”


CRAIG FERGUSON IS THE KING OF LATE NIGHT. He is the funniest late night host and his comments above prove it. If you haven’t caught his show after Letterman, you have no idea what you are missing.
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).
He’s got the healthiest attitude in television.
Everything about Craig Ferguson is a class act. He is so consistantly funny. Proof that America still attracts the best and the brightest from across the world.
I wonder how much Letterman’s latest ratings have to do with the whole latest Palin scandal. Once the hubbub dies down, will Dave’s ratings, too?
I love craig ferguson, he is just hilarious!
Lettermen and his precious ego had to be fellated. Doesn’t surprise his b!tch Craig would lead the rush.
The Cable news cycle is feeding some of this. Either way Letterman will return to his sh!tty old schtick and end up being third behind both Leno and Conan in the fall.
In the end I think Conan will prevail. It took me a little while to be converted fter he first came on the Late Show or whatever it’s called. But I came to realize that he was edgy and funny and very creative without being really nasty to people. There’s a real talent to that.
Jay’s audience was more middle of the road and older. I was never a Leno fan. But the audiences of both Dave and Conan are also getting older. Conan started 17 years ago. As much as I used to love Dave at some point he just started to become nasty. That can be very funny at times but it isn’t always enough.
Anyway it is way too early to know what the outcome will be in the talk show wars.
Affiliates getting nervous right about….. now.
You have got to love Craig Ferguson, he is so funny I really hope he gets bumped up to the “Late Show” when Letterman retires
Craig makes a valid point, it was pretty silly for NBC to proclaim Conan the “King of Late Night” in their press release. However, I don’t find his reaction all that funny, or flattering for that matter. It’s not like Conan is running around calling himself “King of Late Night”, it was a bunch of PR flacks at NBC.
Stunts like this one and Letterman’s contrived controversy with Sarah Palin are desperate attempts to distract from the reality of their situation. Letterman has been #2 for the last decade, but Conan has been coming out on top for most of the last two weeks. Ferguson has been losing to Fallon almost every night, save two or three nights in the last three months. That’s a desperate situation, one neither host expected, and we’re seeing the desperate retaliation.
One other thing, can we knock off the talk about one host being funnier than another? Seriously, the way it’s thrown about almost makes it seem like some kind of metric which can be objectively ascertained. Being funny is a personal opinion, nothing more. It wouldn’t seem like something needing to be said, but unfortunately so many people are so consumed with their own opinions they begin to believe it’s a concrete fact that everyone else must accept.
Sandra Bullock on Dave tonight. Yay!
Conan rarely has female guests, other than that insipid Paltrow. Some girl must’ve given him cooties in kindergarten or something.
Conan has no female writers. Letterman has no female writers. They should be ashamed of themselves.
For the love of god Gloria Steinem, get off you’re soapbox.You sound even more pathetic than Sarah Palin trying to used Letterman joke as a political tool to make her look presidential.As for 51% and Watching for Sandra.Watching For Sandra “Conan rarely has females guest” statement is complete bullshit.As for Conan and Letterman not having females writers, so what? Instead of going around searching for comedic shows that don’t have female writers, then using the percentage of the American female population as your name, you might want to check the male to female ratio of comedian/comedy writers, than rethink why there aren’t any female writers for late night shows.
Conan’s audience is too frat boy juvenile for female writers and Dave just doesn’t like women.
Is CRAIG FERGUSON starting to resemble LES MOONVES ?
Look at the picture that Nikki posted of Craig– he’s starting to look a bit like Les to me.
Hey “Redmenace”
You should check for polyps while your head is so far up your a–.
Classic example of an illiterate babbling Conan fan.
I miss Jay Leno, Conan Obrien does not belong in the Tonight Show helm, if Jay had to be replaced “which he did not” then they should have given the show to Craig Ferguson , a brilliant funny Scottsman that came to America and has made us all laugh for it!
“51%”
Right on! This is one contributory factor to these shows being such stagnant echo chambers. They unapologetically exist to appeal to the beer guzzling male doofus demographic. Have fun as your audience erodes, gentlemen. Fighting over the same small sliver of pie and missing the big picture.
When the networks realize they missed the boat, they’ll have to work twice as hard to change viewing habits and win back the female demographic. Please don’t do bits about weddings and babies and dieting when that time comes.
How these de facto shut-outs of women are legal is curious. Maybe that’s why they stick some females on the production staff – to get around a discrimination lawsuit without women having any genuine influence.
Meanwhile, the shows stink. LOL.
gaga girl: As if! Moonves wishes he had the appeal of Craig Ferguson.
Craig’s opener was on-target, brilliant, and funny. (Remember funny?) And it had to be satisfying to cover his boss Dave’s back like that. NO ONE else on TV could have pulled off that multi-dimensional cold opener.
Hey 51%, Dave doers have female writers. One of them is always doing comedy bits with him by pretending to be his wife from time to time and is in the audience when they do that fake audience question routine. She is an older woman who looks matronly and has been with Dave for several years. He also has a female producer, executive producer to be exact and that is Barbara Gaines who has also been with the show since he was at NBC so stop the soap box rant trying to find something wrong when there isn’t. The dumb joke he said was just that. It had no political agenda until Palin made it so and decided to twist the meaning and use it to her benefit like the Republican politician that she is when she was pimping for John McCain and making scurrilous accusations and made up tales about Obama and refused to quail the hate speech at her campaign rallies with her supporters who were advocating killing Obama and she and her husband Todd were the ones who had their daughter’s boyfriend move in under their roof where he proceeded to ploy the then 16 year old until she got pregnant so where is the outrage then from her then? It is okay for Levi to hump her daughter and then trout her out to the public so the world can know that you have an unwed teenage daughter and a reluctant baby daddy who looks like he’s headed to a gunshot wedding. Shine the mirror back on yourself, Sarah Palin.
In defense of Dave, he dated Merrill Markoe who was the head writer on Late Night, back in the day, and invented Stupid Pet Tricks. As a female writer, we’re 16% of working writers today — don’t blame late night alone, blame Hollywood.
Letterman doesn’t seem to realize how creepy he is, when he makes sexual references about children.
The other night, even Lauren Conrad looked very uncomfortable, when Letterman brought up, wanting to see some phony sex video, that she was supposed to be in. The look on her face was…Yuck, you’re old .
A man has got to know his limitations.
I disagree. I’m female, last I checked, and I love Conan. Actually, I love Conan and Craig. Now that they’re on different hours, I’m in heaven.
I see them both as similar, really. Wacky, witty, intelligent, and self-deprecating. They actually listen to their guests and play off what they say. With either of them, the interview can go anywhere. To me they’re much more enjoyable than Letterman or Leno. Kimmel is a bit too juvenile and boy-centric most of the time, but he comes up with some good stuff on occasion.
Letterman hates women? Au contraire. He’s equally insensitive to both genders — as Kathleen said, occasionally that’s funny, but more often it’s not.
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?
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.
Whiskey —
Late night is watched mostly by male viewers BECAUSE it is marketed at the frat boy element.
Networks and advertisers dictate that women watch tv during the day, and men watch at night, and it’s become a self-fulfilling prophecy. This isn’t the 1950s and that is an outdated model.
Additionally, their idea of what is “male” and “female” is outdated. Women don’t want to watch nonstop shows about pregnancy or getting a guy. Not all men are unwashed women-bashing buffoons (though one wouldn’t know it from the inane male commentary on this board. It would be great fun to see just who these critters are in real life. Probably unemployed or under-employed, unattractive, perhaps still living with mom.)
The point is there are other important demos who not only would enjoy watching late night tv, but 50+% of the population is being shut out of meaningful employment. If men were being shut out, they’d be howling hysterically. Look at how you howl just because one network has a couple of (as you say) shows directed at women.
Guys who have to constantly assert their heterosexuality and who are so threatened by a woman on tv are LESS masculine, not more.
While it is curious that a certain segment of males predictably takes delight in keeping women down, and towards all things female, nobody really cares what they THINK. A shrink could have a field day with them and their sad frustrated lives.
Economics are what matter here. Women have a right to access these jobs, and female viewers have a right to a piece of late night PUBLIC airwaves. Letterman had Merrill Markoe and the show was never better. Sarah Silverman should replace Kimmel. There are many talented women and, let’s face it, the men are sucking big time.
Sitcoms are NOT directed at women. If only, if only. While Les Moonves should be applauded for realizing the sitcome genre is alive, he keeps cranking out idiotic dude comedies (Two and a Half Men, Big Bang, etc.,) ONE Julia Louis-Dreyfus show does not make a female oriented genre. Networks should stop programming to stereotypes and just make good content.
Get one thing very clear. Women are NOT a minority or a niche market. And women make 80% of consumer purchasing decisions. Women don’t care what you think. But, economic disparity is not acceptable.
Stop hating and join the human race.
@Jane, you’re right that no female writers is wrong.
All the shows should take heat for this, not just Letterman. Shockingly, they all have all-male writing staffs.
Leno was waaaay creepy, and so is Conan. In fact, Conan might be creepier than Leno which is really saying something. Maybe NBC suits demand creepiness.
Letterman was always such a decent hilarious guy. Hopefully, he will straighten things out.
As i predicted Conan would be low ratings after a few weeks, NBC made a HUGE MISTAKE , The Nothing But Crap network should fire Mr. Zuckerslime.
there’s a lot of love in this room.
Oh Freud, you are so broing.You work on regrowing that penis and restoring you false sense manhood.Maybe one day you will be a real boy
Those saying Conan is a big mistake don’t understand TV. It doesn’t matter much how many viewers a show gets, it’s who those viewers are. Here’s an example. Is it better to have a show watched by 20 people in a nursing home living on fixed incomes? Or better to have your show only seen by, say, 12 people who are all upwardly mobile young folks making $250,000 per year? The answer, children, is B, 12 people making $250,000 beats 20 people in nursing homes who never get out. And this is why Conan is a superior choice to Leno.
Off topic, saw The Hangover this weekend. This movie proves good marketing is more important than quality. What an overrated film, maybe 2 laughs in the entire thing. My top three summer movies so far: 1) Up, 2) Angels & Demons and 3) Dance Flick.
Craig is hilarious, Dave is funny, Kimmel is funny, and maybe Conan is perfect for those with arrested development, of which there seems to be more than a few.
In another area, have noticed Conan’s stand up hair style almost exactly mirrors the Mormon cult women in Texas. I wish O’Brien the best as he seems like a nice man. It’s just that Conan’s brand of comedy doesn’t match my tastes.
Nothing personal though.
I don’t believe this so called “feud” between Letterman and Palin was planned. However, Letterman obviously knows how to take advantage of a situation. It’s all good buildup until she agrees to appear on the show which leads to boffo ratings. Look at what happened with John McCain. When he showed up to take his medicine the ratings were through the roof.
As for the lack of female writers…..this is a business where you most often hire the people you know and men generally have more male friends than women friends. So stop complaining and consider that there seem to be still quite a few funny women running talk shows. Ellen, Bonnie Hunt, Whoopi Goldberg (actually funnier without a script, the jokes are crap otherwise), and the funniest scripted television show is run by one of the funniest women in entertainment, Tina Fey.
DAVID LETTERMAN’S HATE, ETC. !
David Letterman’s hate is as old as some ancient Hebrew prophets.
Speaking of anti-Semitism, it’s Jerry Falwell and other fundy leaders who’ve gleefully predicted that in the future EVERY nation will be against Israel (an international first?) and that TWO-THIRDS of all Jews will be killed, right?
Wrong! It’s the ancient Hebrew prophet Zechariah who predicted all this in the 13th and 14th chapters of his book! The last prophet, Malachi, explains the reason for this future Holocaust that’ll outdo even Hitler’s by stating that “Judah hath dealt treacherously” and “the Lord will cut off the man that doeth this” and asks “Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother?”
Haven’t evangelicals generally been the best friends of Israel and Jewish persons? Then please explain the recent filthy, hate-filled, back-stabbing tirades by David Letterman (and Sandra Bernhard) against a leading evangelical named Sarah Palin, and explain why most Jewish leaders have seemingly condoned Palin’s continuing “crucifixion”!
While David and Sandra are tragically turning comedy into tragedy, they are also helping to speed up and fulfill the Final Holocaust a la Zechariah and Malachi, thus helping to make the Bible even more believable!
(For even more stunning information, visit MSN and type in “Separation of Raunch and State” and “Bible Verses Obama Avoids.”)
Ilana, how long have you been out of the insane asylum?