Conan's Exit Confirmed

[LukeA]

Originally Posted by Ghost_Tracker

Letterman's ratings got a HUGE boost because of The Scandal.

Not really. It got a bump, but by Thanksgiving/Tiger Woods (AKA, 4-6 weeks), the ratings had leveled off.

Remember, the woman involved was an ex-NBC employee.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.