Ferguson Overtakes Conan

(NEWSER) - David Letterman is handily beating his new late-night rival, Conan O’Brien, in the ratings—just not in some of the key, younger demographics. And that’s due to his singular, quirky charms, writes Peter W. Kaplan in New York, calling Letterman the “last grown-up on network television.” Unlike his erstwhile and future rival, Jay Leno, Letterman does not disguise his disaffection to satisfy affiliates. At 62, he is “the last American codger.” More»

(NEWSER) - After months of promoting Jay Leno's move to 10pm, NBC may shake up its prime-time schedule again, moving its late local news to 10 and Leno to 10:30, the network's onetime programming head speculates. Garth Ancier, now chief of BBC America, shared his speculation with critics at the summer press tour this week in Los Angeles, Washington Post TV columnist Lisa de Moraes reports. More»

New network launches tongue-in-cheek campaign for old network

(NEWSER) - Conan O'Brien's network wants him nominated for an Emmy Award—for a show that aired on another network. TBS, where the late-night host/martyr's latest effort will debut in November, is running "for your consideration" ads touting The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien, which crashed and burned on NBC. "Conan’s great work in 2009 and 2010 deserves Emmy consideration,” Turner Entertainment Networks' president tells Entertainment Weekly —in a statement, so we don't know whether he was able to say it with a straight face. More»

Launch a Fox rival? Return to SNL ? Reality TV?

(NEWSER) - NBC's shabby treatment of Conan O'Brien has been a recurring theme of the Jay Leno-centric late-night shuffle, but "he-who-rocks-the-dopest-pompadour-on-TV" has more options than you might think. MTV ponders his options.

• Defect to Fox: The network is apparently interested, and it would be a great way to tick off NBC. But Fox has a terrible track record with late-night talk shows.
• Saturday Night Live: O'Brien's writing tenure at SNL coincided with a memorably strong run for the show, but Tonight Show host to "Cheeto-dusted anonymity" is a major step down.

(NEWSER) - Things are not going well lately for Conan O’Brien. The Tonight Show’s fall to the bottom of its timeslot ratings was punctuated Wednesday when David Letterman pulled in 4.4 million viewers while Conan drew just 2.5 million, the Baltimore Sun reports. That’s the worst number for the Tonight Show since measuring started. To be fair, the Late Show featured Paul McCartney's first performance at the Ed Sullivan Theater since 1964, but the disparity wasn't atypical, reports the New York Times. More»