That didn't take long. Last night CBS' The Late Show out-dueled, NBC's The Tonight Show. According to Nielsen's early metered market numbers, David Letterman and The Late Show had a 3.4 household rating while Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show pulled a 2.9 HH rating. That's Conan's lowest performance since taking over the show, and the first time The Late Show has beaten The Tonight Show since October.
While Howard Stern will likely take the credit for appearing on Letterman's show Monday night and vowing to take down The Tonight Show, Conan's biggest foe last night might have been the NHL Stanley Cup Finals. While Pittsburgh Penguins fans rejoice (as well as fans of game sevens!), due to the nature of live sports, airing a sporting event in primetime meant that on the west coast, in big markets like Los Angeles and San Francisco there was local programming airing during the latter part of the west coast's prime-time.
James Hibberd has some additional info.
Update: note the comments below, The Tonight Show came in behind Nightline's 3.1 as well.
Sorry, because of the problems moderating comments on these Conan/Dave posts, commenting is now turned off.
