Nightline #1 Last Week; Tops ‘Conan’ 10th Week in a Row

ABC’s “Nightline” continues its late night winning streak. The show was #1 among both Total Viewers and the A25-54 demo last week. “Nightline” beat “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” for the 10th week straight, which hasn’t happened since 1995. Both “Conan” and “Late Show with David Letterman” were in original productions last week.

In Total Viewers, “Nightline” was up 23% versus the same week last year while “Tonight” was down 39%. For Q3 so far, “Nightline” is in first place among Total Viewers averaging 3.52 million, up 19% vs. Q3 2008. “Conan” continued to lead in A18-49 viewers averaging 1.53M viewers to “Nightline’s” 1.16M and Letterman’s 940K.

Today, Media Life‘s Tom Conroy writes that “Nightline’s” ratings success is coming at a price. “It’s hard to argue with the ratings success that ‘Nightline’ has finally achieved,” Conroy writes, “but people hungry for news might be better served by watching Dave’s or Conan’s monologue.”