TV Home Forum

CBS Late Night Changes

Colbert replaces Letterman / Corden replaces Ferguson (April 2014)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
NG
noggin Founding member
Mouseboy33 posted:
Inspector Sands posted:
Mr-Stabby posted:
I know these shows don't rate highly in the UK, but lets face it, the 12:30am shows in the U.S get barely a million viewers, yet they seem to spend a ton of money on them. I genuinely wonder why.

Presumably it's the type of viewers it gets rather than the amount. I'd have thought the regular audience for late night is very different to the daytime or primetime


I think i remember reading they pour money into late night to retain those viewers when they click on the telly in the morning... its on the same channel. A few years back on CBS that is the "strategy" they thought would work to retain viewers for their fledgling morning show so they renamed it to bookend the Late Show they named it the Early Show. (lame). But of course Im not sure how much that is a real strategy.

Recent Ratings.
TOTAL VIEWERS

11:35 p.m.-12:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Tonight,” 3.102 million viewers
CBS “Late Show,” 8.663 million viewers *
ABC “Kimmel,” 2.519 million viewers *

12:35-1:05 a.m. ET
ABC “Nightline,” 1.513 million viewers

12:35-1:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Late Night,” 1.364 million viewers *
CBS “The Late Late Show,” 2.123 million viewers

1:35-2:05 a.m. ET
NBC “Last Call,” 0.715 million viewers *

Season Average Viewers
TOTAL VIEWERS

11:35 p.m.-12:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Tonight,” 3.929 million viewers
CBS “Late Show,” 3.007 million viewers
ABC “Kimmel,” 2.696 million viewers

12:35-1:05 a.m. ET
ABC “Nightline,” 1.685 million viewers

12:35-1:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Late Night,” 1.519 million viewers
CBS “Late Late Show,” 1.431 million viewers

1:35-2:05 a.m. ET
NBC “Last Call,” 0.827 million viewers


That makes The Graham Norton Show - which gets around 4million viewers in the UK - look quite a ratings success I guess. Particularly given that the UK has a much smaller population.
VM
VMPhil
noggin posted:
DVB Cornwall posted:
These pipe dreams for a UK late night live show are just that. There's no demand post 10.30 Sun-Thurs, most viewers are already thinking of the day ahead and are retiring. Investing the funds to make it happen couldn't be justified by the BBC or Channel 4. ITV might have a stab, but it'd be dominated by in-house guests which wouldn't draw the required audience boost.


Didn't Channel 5 try it with The Jack Docherty Show? ISTR it was daily initially, though pre-recorded earlier in the evening rather than being live. I have a dim memory that Graham Norton was a guest presenter on it, before he got his own chat show?

I remember it being one of the better things on Channel 5 when it launched - but that would have been difficult...

The Wikipedia article is actually quite complete and answers all your questions and then some.

I'll post this passage here though, as it sums it up rather well:

Quote:
Docherty was frequently absent from the programme, usually during school holidays, and when this happened the show was retitled Not The Jack Docherty Show and would be presented by a stand-in … Ironically the role of guest host helped to launch Graham Norton's television career, and won him the award for best newcomer at the 1997 British Comedy Awards. Docherty – who was also attending the ceremony – had expected to win the award himself.

Channel 5 had originally wanted to call the show The Docherty Will See You Now, and when first on air it was broadcast five nights a week. However, as the series progressed numbers of episodes were reduced as the channel moved away from its original "stripped and stranded" scheduling format, and, in the first instance, because Docherty had requested that he do fewer shows. From September 1997 it dropped to four nights a week when the Friday edition was withdrawn from the schedule, then three in March 1998 after Monday's episode was also dropped. By September 1998 the series dropped to a Tuesday and Thursday airing, while the Wednesday slot was then taken up with the somewhat similar Melinda's Big Night In, a chat show hosted by Melinda Messenger. One weekly episode of The Jack Docherty Show was aired during its last few months, before the final edition went out on 23 June 1999.
IS
Inspector Sands
Mouseboy33 posted:

11:35 p.m.-12:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Tonight,” 3.102 million viewers
CBS “Late Show,” 8.663 million viewers *
ABC “Kimmel,” 2.519 million viewers *


That surprises me, I thought that Letterman was second to NBC and had been for years. Or was that just when it was Leno?
MS
Mr-Stabby
Letterman got a ratings boost when he announced his retirement. I'm guessing that figure especially is from his final shows.
DJ
DJGM
Double post ... please ignore!
DJ
DJGM
Inspector Sands posted:
Mouseboy33 posted:

11:35 p.m.-12:35 a.m. ET
11:35 p.m.-12:35 a.m. ET
NBC “Tonight,” 3.102 million viewers
CBS “Late Show,” 8.663 million viewers *
ABC “Kimmel,” 2.519 million viewers *



That surprises me, I thought that Letterman was second to NBC and had been for years.
Or was that just when it was Leno?


The Late Show ratings had indeed been trailing behind that of the Tonight Show for quite some time, but these are recent ratings listed here, so I'll hazard a guess the signifigantly higher ratings for CBS, taking it ahead of NBC in the 11:35pm slot, would've due to it being the run up to Dave's last ever edition of The Late Show.
RK
Rkolsen
Inspector Sands posted:


That surprises me, I thought that Letterman was second to NBC and had been for years. Or was that just when it was Leno?


Those numbers were for the last week of May Sweeps which was David Letterman's last week. The numbers were going to be high for the sign off and they only included the three days that Letterman aired that week by simple math the averages would be higher. On Thursday and Friday CBS started airing The Mentalist in that timeslot as a leadin to James Corden. I'm sure the CBS affiliates and James just love this idea. It's kind of like they are just handing over the keys to Jimmy Kimmel for the #2 slot which may be difficult for them to reclaim after three months of drama reruns.

NBC's is still the king of latenight in May where Fallon continues Leno's winning streak where he had the highest average of viewers and the highest ratings in all the main demos advertisers look for in late night programming : adults, men and women 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54.

Seth Meyer's average for May was about 300,000 viewers lower but he still won the month where he won the demos for adults, men and women 18-49; adults and women 18-34; and adults and women 25-54, while tying in men 18-34 with James Corden. Just winning in those bigger and more important demos caused Seth to beat James by .05 of a ratings point.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2015/05/29/nbcs-the-tonight-show-starring-jimmy-fallon-late-night-with-seth-meyers-finish-number-1-for-the-may-sweep-in-adults-18-49/410207/
MO
Mouseboy33
Someone may have posted this already but here is the new LATE SHOW logo. (though the actual production logo could be different.)
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/colbert_late_show_logo_detail.png
Last edited by Mouseboy33 on 6 June 2015 1:01am
DJ
DJGM
Image doesn't show up in your post. So I've posted a copy of it here . . .

http://djgm1974.kitamuracomputers.net/images/colbert_late_show_logo_detail.png

I doubt that is the finalised version of the new LS logo. I certainly hope it isn't. It's a bit rubbish!
:-(
A former member
I still don't get, how he got the job?
DJ
DJGM
623058 posted:

I still don't get, how he got the job?


If you mean how Stephen Colbert got the job of succeeding David Letterman as host of The Late Show, I would hazard a guess he had a meeting with Leslie Moonves last year, sometime after Dave announced his retirement, in which he was offered the job.


Craig Ferguson said he didn't want to host The Late Show when he was still hosting The Late Late Show. Conan O'Brien was probably considered for the job as well, but he's still doing his own show on the basic cable channel TBS, and is most likely a bit reluctant to return to network TV after he was contractually screwed by NBC during his ill-fated stint of hosting The Tonight Show.
RK
Rkolsen
623058 posted:
I still don't get, how he got the job?


I think CBS was going for someone who already had a young (average age 39 years young for latenight) and dedicated fan base. The Colbert Report aired at 11:30 and Late Show airs at 11:35 so I guess they would expect most of his fan base to automatically check out his new show. According to Wikipedia the Colbert Report averaged about 1.1 million viewers in 2013 but in 2014 his audience decreased 3%.

There are two things working against the popularity of this show first many people have a preconceived notion about him because they do not like the shtick if the characterized Stephen Colbert. Second the show won't feature the characterized version of himself which he's performed nightly for almost ten years - he breaks very little in public.

Newer posts