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Originally Posted by Ghost_Tracker
Letterman's ratings got a HUGE boost because of The Scandal.
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Not really. It got a bump, but by Thanksgiving/Tiger Woods (AKA, 4-6 weeks), the ratings had leveled off.
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Remember, the woman involved was an ex-NBC employee.
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The woman in the middle of the extortion attempt (Stephanie Birkitt) is a Worldwide Pants employee. The man accused of extortion (Robert "Joe" Halderman) was a CBS employee at the time. Nothing to do with NBC.
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It's not like there isn't a history of this. Both Letterman and Madonna eventually admitted that the whole thing with her repeatedly cursing on the air was a pre-planned publicity stunt.
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I recall Madonna saying it was planned, but I don't remember Dave admitting or acknowledging anything. He's never suggested or intimated that he was anything other than mortified.
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This "scandal" is the best thing that ever happened to Letterman's ratings!  Personally, I feel that Conan would have "held his own" against Letterman, over the long-term.
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Again, not so much. Within a month taking over the Tonight Show (and four months prior to the extortion attempt- no "quotation marks" needed for an alleged crime punishable by 15 years in prison), Conan had lost over half of Leno's audience totals.