Craig Beats Conan!?
Man, Craig Ferguson has had a good couple of weeks huh? First he becomes a U.S. citizen, then he is asked to perform at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, and now he gets some good ratings news.
For the first time, Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show beat Conan O’Brien’s Late Night in total viewers, according to some reissued (and slightly tweaked by CBS) Nielsen plus same day ratings for the week of Feb. 8. The Late Late Show averaged 1.85 million viewers to Late Night’s 1.82 million. The Late Late Show also tied 
Late Night in viewers in the key 25-54 demo.
Now before those crazed Craig fans start writing obituaries for Late Night, it is worth noting that the reissued Nielsen numbers do not include Tuesday’s installment of the show, which was negatively affected by CBS’ Super Tuesday coverage. In addition, the numbers are based on live plus same day ratings, which include not only live viewers, but delayed viewing as well (in the same day, obv). In other words, Ferguson only won the night, and barely, when those stipulations were added.
That having been said, this is fantastic news for Ferguson, who has been stuck behind O’Brien ever since he joined the Late Late Show in 2005. Ferguson has made headway in the past few months, but has never been able to top the competition on NBC.
The new numbers may not be the overall ratings win Ferguson and CBS want, but this is the first time that they have ever been this close. With the publicity generated by his “honorary citizen” stunt and his upcoming correspondents dinner performance, Ferguson could be in a position to top O’Brien in the ratings with no asterisk attached sometime soon.
Revrant commented:
Boxa: Was nodding along to your opinion until the Jay part, honestly you just looked retarded with that statement. Jay's Vegas-yuck-yuck "cute charm" antics were tired before he was even a guest host for the immortal Carson, and are boring drivel, notice how little his audience laughs and how often they simply clap.
The laughing is done primarily by Kevin, it's a sad state of affairs that Jay would ever be considered funnier than any of his peers, and you have no sense of humor for believing so.
Craig never pulled me in, his interviewing is boring drivel and is highly reminiscent of Jay, but he manages to be funny elsewhere and very clever, and even though his Correspondent's Dinner piece was lacking that, he keeps it up consistently on the show. Conan's interviews are hands down the best there are, he manages to both poke fun at the celebrities and praise them, the confusion from their reactions is just rich and edible.
Even more so where other hosts attempt to stabilize and "normalize" very eccentric personalties like Shatner, Regis, and Goldblum, Conan accentuates their eccentric traits, and the result is always hysterical.
In short, Boxa is an idiot, and good for Craig, maybe he'll dominate the spot with Conan gone.
Oh, Kimmel is in a partially different spot as well, though he is often beaten by Conan and Craig.
12 dogs and a blog commented:
sssshhhhh. Don't tell anybody.
Craig Ferguson is late night's best kept secret. Seriously funny and endlessly entertaining. Mainstream sureal. A delicious late night addiction.
Boxa commented:
Conan's humor is juvenile and obvious, much like SNL's (unsurprisingly), and far too club-over-the-head obvious. On the other hand, Craig's humor is vastly more clever and diverse. Conan's lost his edge, just like Letterman, both of whom were quite sharp early on. I dread seeing Conan replace Leno who kicks his ass in every possible way (talent being the most salient). But Leno got his job by seeing Carson outsted, so it's a bit of the same "go younger! go younger!" bleating of the lumpheaded execs in play yet again. Bottom line: Conan's idiotic stunts that have become a staple (ooh, let's slide on a wire with smoke coming out of my head, and then dwell on it for two weeks!--not much has changed, qualitywise, since his lame writers came back, either) are just tiresome and sliding even farther below junior-high-school level dreck than ever. He should have kept Andy and kept making those "on the road" type videos, which were funny as hell. Now he just phones it in, and Craig's easily won my precious time. I'll watch Conan when he shows up in Jay's timeslot, but I'm sure I'll be groaning and quickly realize how much more interesting contemplating my navel is than ever before.
Jay commented:
Conan > Craig.
I like them both, but no one could touch Conan. But good for Craig for having a good night, but that was just one night. Conan is king!
Bob commented:
Conan is 1000x funnier than anyone on at night. Ferguson and Kimmel blow goats!
Tricious commented:
This is fantastic news and too long in coming! I don't mean to be unkind to Conan, but there's no comparison. Craig is smart, silly and gifted in the art of interviewing. Best of all, he makes me laugh nearly non-stop every show! Way to go, Craig!
dustyd commented:
Good for Craig! I think he is so funny! May his ratings continue to grow!
solofair commented:
Craig Ferguson is original, ad-lib, and incredibly funny. I just wondered why it's taken so long to catch up to Conan -- it seems like Conan's show is more a cult for his odd personality than really attributable to his comedy or almost non-existent interviewing skills. Go Craig!
Becker234 commented:
Alex - you fail to mention that the Jimmy Kimmel show beat them both