Dr. Phil Boosts Letterman Premiere Past Leno

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The combination of Dr. Phil and David Bowie gave the season premiere of CBS’
Late Show with David Letterman its first victory over NBC’s The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno since 1993.

Letterman, also featuring the new Miss Ameica reading the nightly top-10
list, narrowly beat Leno and his 90 California gubernatorial candidates,
winning by one-tenth of a ratings point in the metered markets, 5.1/12 to
5.0/12.

Letterman’s thin margin doesn’t assure him the win when the final numbers
come in late next week.

In Dr. Phil’s first appearance on Letterman Feb. 17, he helped
Letterman to narrowly beat Leno in the metered markets, which held up
in the final viewer and household numbers.

Letterman’s premiere was also up 19% from last year’s season opener,
which notched a 4.3/10 Sept. 23, 2002. And the show scored its highest
numbers since March 31, 2003.

Paige Albiniak
Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.