David Letterman rules when it comes to late-night television nationally. But in Baltimore he's still chopped liver.
That's the news from the latest comparison of national and local ratings taken by A. C. Nielsen during the November sweeps audience survey.
Despite his triumph against all late-night competition nationally with his new show on CBS, Letterman ranks last in Baltimore. And that's not the worst of it.
Not only did Ted Koppel, Arsenio Hall and Jay Leno beat Letterman here, but the reality show "COPS" beat him, too. And the very tired reruns of "In Living Color," with which Fox rushed into the breach after Chevy Chase called in sick for the rest of his late-night life, almost topped Letterman as well.
"The Late Show with David Letterman" is doing worse in #F Baltimore than in any other major market city where his show airs live at 11:35 p.m.
How bad is bad?
* For the weeks between Nov. 4 and Dec. 1, ABC's "Nightline," seen locally on WJZ (Channel 13), averaged an 8.09 rating and 21 share. With each ratings point equal to about 9,400 households, that translates to an audience of 76,000 homes in the Baltimore area -- or 21 percent of all the sets in use from 11:35 p.m. to 12:05 a.m.
* From 12:05 a.m. to 12:35 a.m., Nielsen measured the audience for "COPS" on WJZ at a 5.58 rating and 18 share. That's about 52,000 TV households.
* Meanwhile, for the full hour from 11:35 p.m. to 12:35 a.m., "Arsenio Hall," which airs on WBAL (Channel 11), had a 5.87 rating and 17 share. That's 55,000 homes.
* And Jay Leno's "Tonight" show had a 4.66 share and 13 percent share of the available audience, for about 44,000 homes.
* Letterman logged in with a 3.81 rating and 11 percent of the available audience on WNUV (Channel 54). That means Letterman has an audience here of only 36,000 homes -- less than half the audience for "Nightline."
By way of comparison, infomercials in the same time slot were often seen in 20,000 homes.
Nationally, Letterman beats everybody with a 5.5 rating and an 18 share of the available audience. That's about 5.2 million homes (a national ratings point equals 940,000 households). His closest competition is from "Nightline," which has a 5.0 rating and 15 share. Leno's "Tonight" show weighs in with a 4.4. rating and 13 share.
Because Arsenio Hall is syndicated and runs at different time periods in different cities, his ratings are harder to calculate. But he's performing at about a 2.3 rating overall. So, why is Baltimore such bad news for Letterman?
