Just days after his controversial MTV Movie Awards appearance, Bruno has been booked for "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien."
The alter ego of comic actor Sacha Baron Cohen will make his first late-night talk show appearance on behalf of his upcoming movie Thursday, June 25. Given Cohen's love of the shocking, don't be surprised if he makes "news" during his visit.
Other recent additions to "The Tonight Show" cast include Cameron Diaz (June 22), Lisa Kudrow and Elvis Costello (June 23) and Snoop Dogg (June 26).
David Letterman is bringing out the heavy artillery.
As week two of the Late Night War nobody really wants but those of us in the media are hell-bent on waging gets underway, Letterman has been calling on some of his favorite guests in his attempt to quash any premiere week momentum over at The House of Conan.
Last night, Dave trotted out Howard Stern. Tonight, he’s recruited Oscar winner (and Friend of Dave) Julia Roberts.
Roberts and Letterman spend a good chunk of their visit talking about Letterman’s recent nuptials, with Roberts asking if Letterman’s bride now takes the name “Mrs. Letterman.”
“No, she’s Dave,” Letterman said.
Conan has a pretty big Hollywood start tonight, too: Eddie Murphy. Check out a clip from tonight’s Letterman after the jump.
The late-night race is getting closer. A lot closer.
"The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" beat "Late Show with David Letterman" Monday-- but just barely. According to major market overnight Nielsen numbers, "Conan" notched a 3.1/8, just ahead of "Letterman's" 3.0/8. It was easily the smallest margin of victory for O'Brien since he took over "Tonight" a week ago.
Letterman got a boost Monday from one of his most popular guests: Howard Stern. O'Brien, meanwhile, lacked major starpower, making due with David Duchovny and Anna Friel.
These are overnight household numbers, of course. NBC (and late night insiders) are looking to Thursday, when Nielsen releases the first demographic data on the new "Tonight." The hope at NBC is that while some older viewers might have left "Tonight" post-Jay Leno, younger viewers might be coming on board.
Lorne Michaels is now longer producing Conan O'Brien's late night antics-- but "The Tonight Show" is planning to showcase a number of "Saturday Night Live" alums in coming weeks.
No less than three ex-"SNL" cast members are scheduled to visit with O'Brien over the next two weeks, according to a guest lineup for "Tonight" released by NBC. The wave begins Monday when Eddie Murphy is set to be O'Brien's lead guest.
Later next week, former "Weekend Update" anchor Norm MacDonald has been booked for the June 11 edition of "Tonight." And the next night, June 12, longtime "SNL"-er Kevin Nealon is scheduled to stop by.
O'Brien, of course, did a stint as an "SNL" writer before he took over "Late Night."
"SNL" isn't the only sketch show supplying guests for O'Brien. Jamie Foxx, who first came to fame on "In Living Color," has been booked as both a guest and a musical performer on June 12.
Here's the full list of guests who've been announced to appear on "Tonight" over the next two weeks:
Monday, June 8: David Duchovny and Anna Friel
Tuesday, June 9: Eddie Murphy and musical guest Bonnie Raitt & Taj Majal
Wednesday, June 10: Dane Cook, Steven Ho and musical guest Rancid
hursday, June 11: Norm MacDonald ,Jim Gaffigan and musical guest Neko Case
Friday, June 12: Jamie Foxx, Kevin Nealon and music by Jamie Foxx
Monday, June 15: Joe Torre and musical guest Spinal Tap
Tuesday, June 16: Larry David, Lauren Conrad and musical guest Gavin Rossdale
Wednesday, June 17: William Shatner, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and musical guest Incubus
Thursday, June 18: Features musical guest The Dead Weather
Friday, June 19: Features musical guest Holly Williams
Three nights in, Conan O'Brien is still dominating late-night-- but his margin of victory is, predictably, shrinking.
Wednesday's "Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" earned a 4.3 rating/11 share in Nielsen's metered markets. That easily topped CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman" (2.8/7) and ABC's combo of "Nightline" (2.7/6) and "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (1.2/4).
But here's where the nattering nabobs will start...na-bobbing.
Conan dropped another (roughly) 15 percent from Tuesday to Wednesday. And his Wednesday number was up just 10 percent over Jay Leno's second quarter average as host of "Tonight."
So, yes, the late night race is tightening. Rubberneckers who came to Monday and Tuesday night's shows have started paying attention to their own late night lanes again, with some deciding, "There's nothing to see here, I'm gonna move along."
And yet, as NBC notes, O'Brien has still dramatically expanded his audience (he's up 65 percent over what his final "Late Night" earned). Buzz for the show is also good, with O'Brien-related postings accounting for half the trending topics on Twitter at one point Wednesday.
(OK, I admit the Trending Topics on Twitter bullet point is already becoming annoying when used by publicists to explain away disappointing Nielsen data. But since NBC didn't include it in its official ratings spin, I'm going to include it. Cope.)
The most important thing to remember about these early ratings: They're household numbers, not demos. O'Brien may very well be turning off some older fans of "Tonight," but if he's bringing in new eyeballs (of any age), NBC will be very happy.
That demo information, by the way, is set to be released a week from today.
Two days into his new gig, Conan O'Brien is still the king of late-night ratings.
While predictably down from Monday's much-hyped debut, Tuesday's second edition of "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" averaged a stll-strong 5.0 rating/12 share in metered market overnight Nielsen ratings.
That's the highest Tuesday overnight for "Tonight" since Feb. 27, 2007, and 28 percent better than what Jay Leno had been averaging on Tuesdays during the last three months. It was also good enough to outrate "Late Show with David Letterman" (3.0/7, up a tad from Monday) and "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (1.2/4, flat night-to-night).
Compared to Monday's first outing, O'Brien lost around a quarter of his audience, dropping from a 7.1 overnight rating. Tom Hanks was O'Brien's main guest Tuesday.
O'Brien continues to be a boon for the rest of NBC's after-hours lineup. "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" (2.1/7) was up 24 percent over its second quarter average, soundly spanking CBS's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson."
NBC even included "Last Call with Carson Daly" (1.3/6) in its ratings spin Tuesday, duly noting that show's 30 percent bump over its second quarter average.
New "Tonight Show" host Conan O'Brien got off to a rousing ratings start Monday, crushing CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman" and generating strong sampling.
O'Brien's debut notched a 7.1 rating/17 share in Nielsen's 56 overnight metered markets, the best Monday metered markets for the "Tonight" franchise in four years. "Tonight" outdrew "Late Show" (2.8/7) by a wide margin, and beat the combined average of the CBS broadcast and a repeat of ABC's "Nightline" (2.7/6)/ "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (1.2/4) by 154 percent, NBC said.
Compared to what "Tonight" had been averaging in the most recent quarter, O'Brien boosted ratings by 82 percent. He also improved on his final edition of "Late Night" (2.6/8) by 173 percent.
Overall, NBC said O'Brien's debut gave "Tonight" its seventh-highest Monday overnight ratings since Jay Leno arrived in 1992. It also boosted "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" (2.5/9) to its best overnight numbers ever.
O'Brien didn't outdraw Leno's Friday farewell. Last week's swan song averaged an 8.8 overnight rating, according to Nielsen.
Overnight ratings aren't the most reliable gauge of a show's true performance, since they don't measure what counts most to network executives: Demographic performance. However, O'Brien's healthy households debut bodes well for how he's likely to do when adults 18-49 numbers come out later.
Conan O'Brien opened his first "Late Night" in 1993 with a very funny bit in which he strolled around Manhattan while the entire city reminded him he was no David Letterman.
Last week, I was fortunate enough to get a tour of O'Brien's "Tonight Show" set and offices. When I was in his office, I noticed that on the bulletin board where future guests and sketches are tracked, an index card stated simply, "Conan Runs Across America."
I had a feeling O'Brien was planning a subtle call back to his last First Night, and sure enough, he didn't disappoint. The video is below.
Meanwhile, "The Tonight Show" is in very good hands, indeed.
The last time Conan O'Brien debuted as host of late night show, the reviews were brutal. Sixteen years later, critics seem a bit more impressed.
While not glowing, the early notices for O'Brien's inaugural edition of "The Tonight Show" were relatively upbeat.
"If you like what he does — and I do — odds are you'll be happy for the chance to see him do it an hour earlier," wrote Robert Bianco, TV critic for USA Today.
Time's James Poniewozik called O'Brien "polished, off-the-cuff funny, dapper, poised—but not, substantively, all that different from the Conan of 'Late Night'." He said O'Brien's first monologue was "sharp but not gut-busting. But, more important, it was competent."
The Los Angeles Times' Mary McNamara praised O'Brien's running across America opening as "a funny, ambitious and surprisingly majestic sketch but, more important, it's certainly something Jay Leno would never, ever do.
"O'Brien is not as interested in filling Jay's shoes as in buying a much newer pair," she added.
TV MoJoe tries to make sense of the vast video universe of the 21st century, with a particular focus on the people and programming that populate the five much-maligned broadcast networks. Cable, online and TV on DVD won’t be ignored, either—and if some news breaks out every once in a while, so be it. It’s written by Josef Adalian, deputy editor and columnist for TVWeek.
A candid Q&A with Steve McPherson. He's not happy with Nielsen.
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NOW PLAYING: There have been plenty of amazing TV finales, but the final six minutes of "Six Feet Under" grabbed me in a way I didn't expect. It showed the randomness of life and reminded us of how we can never predict just what will come next. Plus, it's all set to the tune of Sia's powerful "Breathe Me." It's a fitting coda as TVMoJoe on TVWeek comes to an end.
TV MoJoe tries to make sense of the vast video universe of the 21st century, with a particular focus on the people and programming that populate the five much-maligned broadcast networks. Cable, online and TV on DVD won’t be ignored, either—and if some news breaks out every once in a while, so be it. It’s written by Josef Adalian, deputy editor and columnist for TVWeek.
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