via press release:
Quick Take for Friday, June 26, 2009
(Fast Affiliate Live + Same Day Ratings)
“Nightline” Wins Friday — Besting “Conan” and “Letterman” for the Third Night in a Row According to Fast Affiliates
Last Friday night, ABC News “Nightline,” which for the second night in a row devoted the show to Michael Jackson, outperformed both CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman” and NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien,” according to Nielsen fast affiliate time period data. The program averaged an audience of 4.193 million total viewers, while “Conan” averaged 3.718 million and “Letterman” averaged 3.089 million. This marks the third night in a row “Nightline” bested both CBS and NBC in Total Viewers.
Source: Nielsen Media Research (Fast Affiliate Live +Same Day Program rating) 6/26/09 and
Nielsen Fast Affiliates, 6/26/09 11:30PM-12AM ABC & 11:30PM-12:30AM CBS & NBC time period average
Of course it won. People are insatiable for Michael Jackson info. What did they feature on Wednesday? Demo numbers? I would imagine we old folks who grew up with Jackson’s career would watch. The way these tribute shows are getting ratings there seems to be no end to speculation about anything and everything.
Two nights in a row for Michael Jackson? What is this, the Kennedy assassination? Or even the Reagan assassination attempt? This is a has been rock star who croaked due to the usual over-indulgence in drugs. Hopefully by Friday this will be old news.
Any numbers on the BET Awards? Only reason I watched the show was to see the tributes to Michael Jackson, sure there were plenty other people doing the same. Wouldn’t be surprised if this gives the Award Show record numbers.
Forget it. Just found the preliminary ratings through Google. 5.8 rating for the night. Highest ever. Up 61% and 10% of TV sets were tuned in to the show.
Julian, we will have final numbers for the BET awards when we get the cable show ratings tomorrow. We ordinarily don’t see cable show ratings prior to Tuesdays except by press release or trade press.
I’m still surprised how much better Conan does than Letterman. Nightline had a great week though.
BET awards:
10.2 million viewers, a 61% increase over its audience last year.
So let’s see, Letterman won the first two days of the week… then Wednesday, Nightline inexplicably won, with Letterman pulling second… then Thursday, Nightline pulled a HUGE win (no surprise, lots of pop culture news that night), with Conan suddenly demolishing Letterman for second… and then Friday was a repeat of Thursday.
Pretty eventful week for late-night ratings. I’ll be interested in what the ratings look like for next week’s episodes (after almost everyone comes back from this week’s vacation)