late night ratings

Does NBC have something to worry about now that Leno is back in the 'Tonight Show' chair or is this just a case of settling the new guy in ... uh, again?

Dave Letterman's 'Late Show' scored a 1.3 in the demo ratings while Jay Leno's 'Tonight Show' scored a 1.1 on Monday.

What's to blame? It's the lead-in's fault. CBS had the highest prime time lead-in while NBC finished a distant fourth or as Conan O'Brien would call it, "payback."

Can Leno pull things around or is this a sign of things to come?

I'm not quite sure I get what Tom Shales says near the end of this piece about his recent visit to the set of The Tonight Show.

Shales tries to get to the heart of why Conan O'Brien, after a big start (of course), is losing more and more ground. He is even losing to David Letterman when Letterman is in repeats (overall ratings - Conan still wins the younger demographic).

He makes a lot of good points about how the set might be doing him in (too big), how the interviews are too rehearsed, and that there's too much prepared comedy. Those are all things that Conan and his crew will look at in the coming months, I'm sure. (I also think part of the problem is Conan's personality - I think he's more of an acquired taste than either Leno or Letterman.)