The Tonight Show with Jay Leno has ceded its lead back to Late Show with David Letterman. After Leno regained the reins of the show last week, he went on to beat ‘Letterman’ Monday through Friday — a five-day streak — among viewers, A18-49 and A25-54, but that streak ended yesterday. ‘Letterman’ overtook ‘Leno’ in A18-49 rating (1.3 vs. 1.1) and A25-54 rating (1.6 vs. 1.4).
Among viewers, ‘Leno’ still carried a slight edge (4.36M vs. 4.19M), but the demo wins are still significant (even if NBC’s incredibly weak 8:00-11:00 p.m. primetime line-up was a contributing factor).