Late Night Ratings: "Nightline" beats Dave, Conan

Thursday is Ratings Day, and this week's press release comes from ABC (via TVbythenumbers.com):

ABC News “Nightline” was #1 among Total Viewers for the week of June 22, 2009, outperforming NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” by 200,000 viewers and CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman” by 430,000 viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. The last time “Nightline” bested both CBS and NBC among Total Viewers was election week, November 2008.

Alert readers will remember that the week of June 22 was a rather monumental week for news: Michael Jackson died on June 25, which allowed "Nightline" to devote two broadcasts last week to eulogizing him. Most Americans first became aware of co-anchor Martin Bashir through his infamous documentary about the superstar, "Living with Michael Jackson." The show also got a lot of publicity for its Wednesday broadcast about health care reform. "Nightline" was viewed by an average of 3 million people during the week of June 15, and 3.8 million during the week of the 22nd.

Meanwhile, in what is shaping up to be a weekly occurrence, NBC is crowing over Conan's demographic domination over its rivals. Talk Show News is getting really tired of reporting what is becoming a dog-bites-man story, but this headline from NBC is worthy of a chuckle: CONAN’S AUDIENCE IS MORE THAN 10 YEARS YOUNGER THAN ‘LATE SHOW’S,’ AND CONAN IS EVEN YOUNGER THAN HE WAS ON ‘LATE NIGHT’ FOR THE SAME WEEK LAST YEAR

Conan is even younger? Has he discovered the Fountain of Youth?