The Ratings Are In

The ratings for the network late night shows first night back live are in, and not surprisingly Leno & Conan whooped Letterman & “The guy from The Drew Carey Show” in the Nielson battle. The ratings victory can probably be attributed to a few things:

1. Most people probably tuned into Leno to see if he would fall on his fat chin without his writers.
2. 9 out of 10 Americans couldn’t pick Craig Ferguson out of a lineup, even if the lineup consisted of just Craig Ferguson.
3. Who doesn’t love Conan?
4. Letterman = Not Funny. Writers or no Writers.

Due to the ongoing strike, the late night shows are going to find it hard to schedule guests. Many SAG actors won’t cross the picket line to appear in support of the WGA. The same will go for many politicians, mostly Presidential Candidates, as they are all vying for union support in the upcoming elections.

Mike “I heart Chuck Norris” Huckabee made this mistake when he appeared on Leno Wednesday evening, drawing the ire of the union.

Huckabee, a candidate who has actively sought union support, claimed earlier in the day that he would not cross any picket lines. He claims that he was under the impression that a special dispensation had been granted to ALL the shows by the WGA, not just Letterman/Ferguson, and that he didn’t think he was crossing any picket lines.

In other strike related news...
There is speculation that The Hollywood Foreign Press is considering pulling the Golden Globes Awards Show from television this year, due to the fact that they have not been able to procure any waivers from the WGA as of yet. The thinking is that it will be a struggle to get a lot of the stars to cross any WGA picket lines to attend the televised event, but if the show is not on TV it becomes more of a non-issue. If there is no TV, no one can see. And, if no one can see then it’s like it didn’t even happen. Right?

The Golden Globes are my favorite of the award shows. Why? Because they serve booze, thus helping pull the stick out of their collective asses. I am looking forward to an award show that is at the mercy of a bunch of drunken Hollywood types, relying solely on their ad-libs for material. The potential for someone to have a Kanye West “George Bush hates black people” moment is off the scales.