‘Late’ Loses Olympic Glow

Even a lackluster Olympics helped put David Letterman’s show back on the victory platform. The Olympic flame, however, didn’t leave any late-night afterglow.

CBS’ “Late Show With David Letterman” beat NBC’s “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” during the two weeks of the Olympics, the first time Letterman has claimed the gold by that standard since August 1995; however, with CBS’ prime-time results rapidly subsiding to pre-Olympic levels, Leno vaulted back on top this week, demonstrating the influence prime time has on the late-night ratings race.

Over the course of the Winter Games, Letterman’s audience surged more than 30% to an average 5.9 million viewers versus 5.8 million for Leno, despite starting 30 minutes later on half those nights.

Through the first quarter of 1998, Leno is averaging a commanding 6.7 million viewers, to Letterman’s 4.5 million.

“Late Show” quickly slipped back near its average before the Games on Monday and Tuesday this week, trailing Leno by a wide margin in preliminary results from 38 major cities monitored by Nielsen Media Research. On those two nights, “The Tonight Show” averaged a 5.9 rating to 3.6 for Letterman.

On Wednesday, however, with CBS enjoying bigger-than-usual ratings due to the Grammy Awards telecast, the two shows again finished relatively even: a 5.5 rating for Leno to Letterman’s 5.3.

In a nutshell, “Late Show” apparently enjoyed little or no residual benefit from heightened exposure during the Olympics; nevertheless, CBS took some heart in the knowledge that Letterman can still surpass Leno if given stronger support from the network’s prime-time lineup.

“There’s only one knob that’s being shifted right there, and that’s the [prime time] lead-in,” said “Late Show” executive producer Rob Burnett.

NBC’s spin doctors, not surprisingly, had a different take--namely, that Letterman’s up-and-down performance signals just how far the program has dropped since its ratings heyday, able to achieve no more than parity with Leno despite the artificial jolt the Olympics provided.

According to NBC, Leno’s rapid rebound demonstrates just how firmly ensconced its host is as the late-night ratings champ.

“The lead-in only has an [effect] in the extremes: extremely bad or extremely good,” said Gary Considine, executive producer for NBC Studios, which produces “The Tonight Show.”

Considine noted that both Leno and Letterman recruit a substantial portion of their audience from other sources, with Leno converting 45% of NBC’s prime-time viewers into late-night ratings and Letterman hanging on to about 40% of CBS’ prime-time audience.

Even so, other factors that clearly hamper Letterman on a regular basis were erased during the Olympics, indicating that the show might be more competitive given a level playing field.

NBC regularly does much better than CBS at 10 p.m. Monday through Friday, airing the blockbuster hit “ER,” “Law & Order” and two editions of “Dateline NBC.” By contrast, CBS ranks third most weeknights, with its two strongest evenings Saturday and Sunday, when the network airs “Walker, Texas Ranger” and its popular Sunday movie franchise.

In addition, CBS’ station lineup is generally weaker than NBC in local markets, including Los Angeles, where KNBC-TV Channel 4 holds a significant edge over KCBS-TV Channel 2.

Even with an improved prime-time showing during the Olympics, then, late news on CBS stations--which feeds directly into Letterman--didn’t entirely reflect those gains, as many viewers turned back to the local anchors they watch normally.

In the big-city metered markets, for example, NBC’s average rating for late news during January was 9.9, versus 6.1 for CBS. Despite the fact that CBS’ prime-time audience roughly doubled during the Olympics, late-news averages were near parity, with CBS outlets funneling an 8.9 rating into Letterman, to NBC’s 8.4.

CBS also attracts an older audience with shows such as “Diagnosis Murder” and “48 Hours” that don’t attract the younger folk who tend to watch Letterman. The Olympics temporarily lured some of that young audience back to CBS.

The importance of a network’s performance heading into local news can be seen at ABC. Despite its ratings woes as the third-place network overall, ABC performs well at 10 p.m. weeknights with “Monday Night Football” (and now “The Practice”), “NYPD Blue” and the newsmagazines “PrimeTime Live” and “20/20.”

“We feel like we’re pretty well supported with a good [audience] flow to us,” said Scott Carter, executive producer of “Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher,” the topical discussion show that follows “Nightline.” That one-hour tandem now regularly surpasses Letterman’s ratings in the major cities Nielsen meters.

“Nightline” and “Politically Incorrect” also fluctuate depending on that day’s events, with ratings frequently spiking upward in response to major stories.

“Our performance is tied to the news in the same way ‘Nightline’ is,” added Carter, noting that the program’s ratings have risen 14% in the last month, “since Monica Lewinsky has become the primary focus of our nation.” For the most part, those gains do not come at the expense of the competing talk shows.

Letterman dominated late night for nearly two years after his much-publicized shift from NBC to CBS, but Leno rebounded to control the ratings race. NBC’s Considine cites Leno’s 2 1/2-year winning streak prior to the Olympics as proof of a shift that is not lead-in dependent.

“People know to come to the show. People do use the remote control,” he said. “This is not something that happened overnight. This is something that happened over the long term. . . . People get comfortable in their viewing habits.”

But “Late Show’s” Burnett contends that the lead-in disparity remains a major factor in the ratings. CBS is seeking to make strides, he said, and with the acquisition of NFL football for next season will again have a weekly attraction that reaches many of the men who once watched Letterman.

“Networks are cyclical,” Burnett said. “We just have to be out there lurking and ready for that shift.”

As for the ongoing frustration of losing to “The Tonight Show,” Burnett maintains that the show’s staff generally focuses on creative matters, not competitive ones.

“When I went into television, it was never to get a 6.2 [rating] on a Tuesday,” he said. “I’m not saying ratings aren’t important. They are important, but it’s not a big part of our day. . . . You look at them, and then you try and figure out, ‘What are we going to do tonight?’ ”