Late Night Ratings: "Late Show" reruns beat original "Tonight Shows" by a slightly larger margin

Reread last week's post and you'll get a decent approximation of this week's ratings news. The only difference: Dave's repeats scored a few more viewers during the week of Aug. 10. During the week of Aug. 3, "Mr. Letterman’s repeats nosed out Mr. O’Brien by just 7,000 viewers," writes the New York Times' Bill Carter. "Last week he beat him by 280,000 with 2.95 million viewers to 2.67 million for Mr. O’Brien."

Carter also reveals the total viewership of the first half hour of "Tonight" and "Late Show," along with the only half hour of "Nightline": "In the half hour when the three shows faced each other 'Nightline' had 3.36 million viewers to 3.27 million for Mr. Letterman and 3 million even for Mr. O’Brien."

Here's the CBS press release trumpeting the "Late Show" victory, and the predictable response from NBC about Conan's demographic win in viewers 18-49.

Next week, it'll be interesting to see what the ratings picture looks like, as Conan is currently broadcasting reruns and Dave has original shows. Both "Tonight" and "Late Show" will have all-new episodes beginning Aug. 24. Conan seems to have a little more starpower, with guests including Quentin Tarantino, Bill Maher and Mike Tyson, vs. Vogue magazine's Anna Wintour, Eugene Levy and Anne Heche in the "Late Show" lineup.