• by Wayne Friedman , November 9, 2007

The effect of the writer's strike, as expected, has given an early hit to late-night talk shows, with ratings down by double-digit percent decreases.

In rerun mode, "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on Wednesday dropped 18% to a 3.1 household rating/8 share versus a 3.8 rating the week before. On Tuesday, the "Tonight" show dropped 12% versus the same day the week before.

CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman" lost 3% on Wednesday to a 3.5 and 11% on Tuesday. NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" dropped 12% to a 1.5 on Wednesday, and was even on Tuesday ratings at a 1.8 rating with its comparable night the week before.

CBS' "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" stayed the same on Wednesday with a 1.7 rating, but was clipped 13% to a 1.3 on Tuesday. "Jimmy Kimmel Live" lost 6% to a 1.6 rating on Wednesday, and is 15% down on Tuesday to a 1.7 rating.

Late-night shows typically go into repeats--especially in the summer and some other holiday periods. Analysts say the current ratings declines are similar to those rerun ratings performances.

Program analysts say it's not just the networks' advertising sales coffers that are getting hurt, but local stations as well. "It's a double whammy," says Brad Adgate, senior vice president and corporate research director for media agency Horizon Media. "The thing of concern is that this is sweep. These shows don't go into rerun during November. And that means local TV stations are also getting hurt 10% to 15%."

Many local TV stations still rely on diary measurement during the November sweeps period, and three other sweeps periods, to set local advertising rates for the rest of the year.

For the week of October 28th--the last full week of original episodes --"The Tonight Show," as usual, led the pack. It recorded a 1.5 rating among 18-49 viewers and 4.5 million total viewers. "Letterman" was next at a 1.1 rating and 3.7 million total viewers; "Nightline" had a 1.2 rating and 3.6 million viewers; "Jimmy Kimmel Live" earned a 0.7 rating and 2.1 million viewers; "Conan O'Brien" had a 0.8 rating and 1.9 million viewers; "Craig Ferguson" came in at a 0.6 rating and 1.6 million viewers and "Last Call with Carson Daly" rounded out the bottom of the list at a 0.4 rating and 1.1 million viewers.