Jeff Goldblum: Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated

It's a slow week for late night shows, since most of them are on pre-Fourth of July vacations, but at least Comedy Central is providing some new programming -- both "The Daily Show" and "Colbert Report" are airing fresh episodes this week (they'll be in reruns next week).

Last night's "Colbert" had a terrific guest appearance by Jeff Goldblum, who has popped up on the show twice in the last couple of weeks to speak up for flies and plug his TV show ("Law and Order Criminal Intent," Sundays on USA!). Rumors were flying around the Twittersphere that Goldblum had perished by falling off a cliff in New Zealand. Watch the hilarity that ensues when Goldblum tries to convince Stephen that he is, indeed, alive:

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CBS gearing up to battle Jay Leno in the fall

In the grand tradition of clever acronyms like "(The Man from) U.N.C.L.E." and CAN-SPAM, it's time for... Project L.E.N.O.! Variety is reporting that CBS is launching a new marketing plan, dubbed L.E.N.O. for "Late prime Enhanced News Opportunity," although you'd think that would make it "LPENO." Never mind that, though -- let's find out what this exciting new initiative entails:

Eye marketing execs have decided to go a step further and put together a 10 p.m. "tool kit" for stations to promote the hour, include sponsorable broadcast spots, Web banners and radio spots, as well as behind-the-scenes vignettes... According to CBS marketing chief George Schweitzer, the net will use all its fall co-op money -- the marketing partnership with stations, in which [affiliates] pay half and the network pays half -- in order to promote 10 p.m. series.

Those 10 o'clock shows include "CSI: Miami," "The Good Wife," "CSI: NY," "The Mentalist" (which is moving to a new, later time slot), and "Numbers." The benefit for affiliates could be higher ratings (and bigger advertising dollars) for their 11 PM local news shows.

Schweitzer -- that kidder! -- joked that it was coincidence that the name of the initiative just happened to share the same name as the talk show host who will be competing with CBS during the 10 PM time slot. "You know us marketing guys, we love acronyms," he said. "The alphabet, after all, is in the public domain."

Late Night Ratings: David Letterman pulls ahead in total viewers

During the week of June 15, "Late Show with David Letterman" scored 200,000 more viewers than "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien." Those numbers are from an NBC press release -- and, natch, the Peacock is spinning the fact that Coco's viewers are younger than Dave's:

Conan won the week by a 67 percent margin in adult 18-49 viewers (1.8 million adults 18-49 vs. 1.1 million for "Late Show"), up from a 53 percent win during the same week last year and up from a 34 percent "Tonight" margin for the season through the end of May.

In the younger half of the key 18-49 demographic, adults 18-34, Conan won the week by a towering 164 percent margin (930,000 adults 18-34 vs. "Late Show's" 352,000), up from 103 percent for the same week last year and up from 50 percent for "Tonight" this season through the end of May.

The press release also includes some interesting info regarding the average age of late night viewers. During the week of June 15, the median age of Conan's audience was 45.8; Letterman's, 57.0; Jimmy Fallon, 44.0; Craig Ferguson, 53.5; "Nightline," 57.9; and "Jimmy Kimmel Live," 53.1.

Here are the weekly averages (total viewers):

11:35 p.m. ET
NBC "Tonight," 3.3 million viewers
CBS "Late Show," 3.5 million viewers
ABC "Nightline," 3.0 million viewers

12:05 a.m. ET
ABC "Kimmel," 1.3 million viewers

12:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Late Night," 1.6 million viewers
CBS "Late Late Show," 1.5 million viewers

1:35 a.m. ET
NBC "Last Call," 0.9 million viewers

Cable:
Comedy Central, 11 p.m. ET, "The Daily Show," 1.6 million
Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m. ET, "The Colbert Report," 1.3 million

Former "Tonight Show" announcer Ed McMahon dies

The New York Times is reporting that Ed McMahon, Johnny Carson's second banana for nearly 30 years, died earlier today at the age of 86.

For late night watchers who were too young to remember McMahon on "Tonight," he may be best remembered as something of a pop culture punchline. Recently, he's appeared with rapper M.C. Hammer on "Cash for Gold" commercials, and last year, he was forced to sell his Beverly Hills mansion after falling behind on his mortgage. Last summer, Jimmy Kimmel brought him on as a pitchman for Pontiac autos.

McMahon was also satirized on "Saturday Night Live" in sketches featuring Dana Carvey as Carson and Phil Hartman as McMahon. Hartman's "You are correct, sir!" became something of a catchphrase. "I don't remember ever saying, 'You are correct, sir!' Phil Hartman made that famous, and now I have to try my best to imitate Phil Hartman imitating me," said McMahon in an online chat several years ago.

Besides "Tonight," McMahon will also be remembered for his frequent appearances on Jerry Lewis's Muscular Dystrophy telethon, and his stints hosting "Star Search" and "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes." But his most lasting legacy is two words long: "Heeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny!"

Conan O'Brien: On vacation already?

An anonymous commenter left the following remark on this entry: "Conan's already got a week of repeats coming up?! Has it even been a month yet? Yeah Conan, take a break!!!"

Yes, it's true -- after four weeks at the "Tonight Show" helm, O'Brien is taking a week off, from June 29-July 3. However, almost every talk show is going dark that week, due to the 4th of July holiday. Presumably, viewing levels are down as people go to their lakeside cabins, or whatever it is people do during summer holidays.

At this point, it looks like the lone holdout is "Live with Regis and Kelly," which plans a week of fresh shows in the run-up to Independence Day. Perhaps those of us who will be home that week and are not planning to turn off our TVs should take the opportunity to try something different -- if you're a Conan fan, watch Dave's repeats for a week, or vice versa. Let's call a weeklong truce in the late-night wars!

Here is Conan's repeat schedule. (Talk Show News heartily recommends the July 2 episode with Norm MacDonald.)

Mo 6/29: Tom Hanks, Green Day (R 6/2/09)
Tu 6/30: Gwyneth Paltrow, Joel McHale, John Mayer Trio (R 6/4/09)
We 7/1: Eddie Murphy, Angela Kinsey, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal (R 6/9/09)
Th 7/2: Norm MacDonald, Jim Gaffigan, Neko Case (R 6/11/09)
Fr 7/3: Kobe Bryant, William Shatner, Incubus (R 6/17/09)

Late Night Ratings: Is David Letterman winning over Jay's audience?

The latest set of numbers is out and it looks like Conan O'Brien is continuing to win in the "important audience categor[ies]" -- ouch, it must hurt to be over 49 and no longer be important -- but Dave is doing well when you just look at the numbers. "[W]hen all viewers are counted [Conan's] lead over Mr. Letterman is just over 100,000, with 3.771 million to 3.669 million for Mr. Letterman," reports the New York Times. The average age of Dave's viewers is 56.7, compared with 45.7 for Conan. (Jay Leno had a median viewer age of 55.7, so presumably the 10-year drop is why NBC is rejoicing.)

Conan scored 1.040 million 18-34-year-old viewers in his second week on the air, vs. Dave's 376,000. In the 18-49 category, Conan had 2.013 million viewers vs. 1.126 million for Dave. "Even in the oldest group that is used to sell to advertisers, viewers between 25 and 54," writes the Times' Bill Carter, "Mr. O’Brien had a commanding 38 per cent lead with 2.050 million viewers to 1.486 million for Mr. Letterman." Presumably some of Leno's disgruntled 55+ viewers have started switching over to CBS at 11:35; hopefully "Late Show" won't be inundated with ads for adult diapers and erectile dysfunction drugs, a la the old-skewing evening network news programs.

Meanwhile, Aaron Barnhart's analysis of Conan's first couple of weeks makes some fresh points, especially about the frenetic audience reaction when Coco walks out on stage:

I watched the clock and on Wednesday’s broadcast it took Conan 97 seconds from the end of Richter’s “O’Brieeen” to introducing his first joke. Most of that 97 seconds consisted of the crowd going nuts, Conan telling the crowd to calm down, the crowd going nuts some more, Conan looking nervously impatient, etc. On Tuesday’s show the delay was 77 seconds, and Monday’s “Tonight” monologue started 95 seconds after the host walked out. By comparison, the host of the CBS “Late Show” started his first joke a brisk 39 seconds after Kalter’s “Lllllletterman!”

Talk Show News has noticed the same thing happening on "The Colbert Report" -- on last night's show, it took 55 seconds for the audience to settle down. Now, we have attended many a live taping and know that the warm-up guys try their darndest to get everybody pumped before the show starts. But if you are watching at home, it is annoying. Viewers tune in to see comedy, not listen to applause.

Jason Jones: Reporting from Iran

With Iran much in the news due to its recent election, "The Daily Show" is rolling out a weeklong series of reports from the country from correspondent Jason Jones, to be called "Access of Evil."

In an interview with the New York Daily News, Jones took a humorous poke at fellow Comedy Central personality Stephen Colbert's recent series of shows from Baghdad. "I applaud what Stephen did, but he did have the entire United States military backing him up," Jones told the Daily News.

"For our trip, I had Jason's back and Jason had mine," said producer Tim Greenberg, who accompanied Jones to Iran. "And that was it."

Jones interviewed several Iranian citizens, including a family, an underground rapper and a feminist blogger. He also attended a speech by President Ahmadinejad. The reports will air starting Monday the 22nd. (The first piece, "Behind the Veil - Minarets of Menace," aired last night; watch it on "The Daily Show"'s web site.)