That was fast! After only seven days on the job, Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show suffered its very first ratings loss to their dreaded rivals over at CBS. In news that has to be concerning to NBC (not to mention music to Jay Leno’s ears), The Late Show with David Letterman roundly trounced the Tonight Show in the overnight ratings (3.4 to 2.9), marking the first time Letterman has been able to claim victory in eight months. And while it would be silly to overinflate the importance of a single night’s results in what both sides acknowledge to be a long-term race, last night’s episode of Letterman did include one moment which seems to suggest some A-List celebrities are indeed gravitating towards Team Letterman.
As anyone who’s been watching David Letterman for a long time would attest, it’s always fun to watch him flirt with leggy supermodels and A-List actresses, especially when they casually flirt back. To wit, there has always been strong chemistry between Letterman and Julia Roberts, who just happened to be Dave’s lead guest last night. Despite the fact that the two of them have established a strong on-camera relationship over a number of years, we will admit that it surprised us when Julia took an opportunity to get an unprovoked sideways shot in at Conan last night. As the two were talking and Dave did one of his patented ad-libs, Julia jumped in to add that “You are so much funnier than other people who talk at this time of the evening.†Wow!
Letterman beats NBC’s ‘Tonight Show’ [Live Feed/HR]