• by David Kaplan , January 14, 2005

It's not an encore telecast if you haven't seen it before. And perhaps that's what helped those night owls recovering from New Year's Eve revelry the week of Jan. 3, as NBC's late-night lineup ruled the week.

The encore telecasts of Conan O'Brien "triumphed" (sorry, couldn't help it) over CBS' premiere week of "The Late Late Show" with Craig Ferguson, delivering a 38 percent margin of victory in ages 18-49, and Jay Leno won his 11:35 p.m slot by a 24 percent margin. For the week, "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" (1.1/6 in ages 18-49, 2.4 million viewers overall) beat CBS' debut week of 001 (0.8/5 in ages 18-49, 2.0 million viewers overall) and the second half of ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

In the earlier 11:35 time slot for the week of Jan. 3-7, "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" scored a 2.1/8 ratings share with the 18-49 category, with 6.0 million viewers overall--allowing it to come ahead of CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman," who had a 1.7/7 share in 18-49 and 4.8 million viewers overall. ABC's "Nightline" had a 1.3/5 rating with ages 18-49 and 4.0 million viewers overall, while batting clean-up, Jimmy Kimmel scored a 0.6/4 in ages 18-49, with 1.6 million viewers overall.

An NBC spokesman did point out that CBS's closing in could result from the fact that the lead-ins for Leno have been down somewhat. Leno's season-to-date lead in ages 18-49--0.4 of a rating point--is down from a 0.7 lead at this point last season, the NBC spokesman noted, adding: "but it's in line with a 0.5 margin two years ago and a 0.4 margin three years ago."

Incidentally, the premiere of "The Late Late Show" with Craig Ferguson delivered CBS' best time period and best viewer total in a year, and the highest household rating since Nov. 2003, according to CBS' reading of Nielsen ratings for that week. CBS' new version of "The Late Late Show," which debuted Jan. 3, posted a 1.6/06 in households, with 2.02 million viewers.

"This is the time slot's best delivery in households since the week ending Nov. 21, 2003 and best viewer total since the week ending Jan. 2, 2004," a CBS spokesman said. Compared to the same week last year, "The Late Late Show" was up 7 percent in households, from a 1.5/06 rating, and up 9 percent in viewers from 1.86 million. "The Late Late Show" was up 33 percent in women ages 18-34--with 0.8/04 rating from 0.6/04--as well as up 29 percent in women 18-49--with 0.9/05 from 0.7/04--and was unchanged in both adults ages 18-49 (0.8/05) and adults ages 18-34 (0.6/04) compared to the same week last year.

On Thursday, "The Late Late Show" tied "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" in households and women ages 18-49, and topped "Late Night" in viewers (2.51m versus 2.17m).