On Second Night, Leno Again Beats Letterman – Bill Carter – New York Times

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Jay Leno had a solid second night back on “The Tonight Show” on Tuesday night, thanks in part to a special opening monologue from his lead guest, Sarah Palin.

Mr. Leno easily won the late-night ratings competition across the board with 5.8 million viewers and a 1.6 rating among the 18-to-49 audience that NBC always points to as the main measure of success (because of advertiser preferences for that group).

The younger-adult rating matched Mr. Leno’s number on Monday night, one indication that Ms. Palin helped maintain the tune-in factor from Mr. Leno’s first night back. He dropped slightly fewer than 1 million viewers from Monday, when he reached 6.6 million people.

In both categories, he dominated his longtime competitor, David Letterman, who reached 3.7 million viewers on Tuesday and had a 1 rating in the 18-49 group. Both numbers were not atypical for Mr. Letterman, which may mean Mr. Leno is bringing in viewers who had not regularly been watching the late-night shows recently.

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