While Jay Leno and David Letterman duke it out again for late-night supremacy, advertisers and viewers can just sit back and enjoy the show.
NBC’s decision to return Leno to his “Tonight Show” perch starting tonight, pitting him against Letterman’s “Late Show” for a second time, has revived a long-running war with CBS.
TV analysts predict the showdown — the fiercest since Letterman and Leno first went toe to toe in 1993 — will boost late-night ratings in the near term as the two networks try to one-up each other.
“Both shows are going to be pulling out the heavy artillery,” said Gary Carr, executive director of national broadcast for Targetcast tcm, a New York media-buying firm. “They will have amazing guests and people will talk and write about it. It will raise viewership.”
Advertisers are already girding for the battle. Media buyers said NBC is pretty much sold out of commercial spots for the first week of Leno’s “Tonight Show” return.
Although Leno used to get higher rates when he was the reigning late-night king, both Leno and Letterman are fetching around $50,000 for a 30-second spot.
What’s more, both networks are lining up big-name guests in preparation for their hosts going head to head.
NBC threw the first big punch when it landed Fox News commentator and possible presidential contender Sarah Palin for tomorrow night.
CBS is counterattacking with Mitt Romney, a potential GOP challenger to Palin.
In January, NBC decided to pull the plug on Leno’s show at 10 p.m. because of poor ratings and return him to his old 11:35 p.m. slot. To make way for Leno, NBC cut loose his “Tonight Show” replacement, Conan O’Brien, after just seven months.
The embarrassing brouhaha that resulted became standup fodder for all three late-night hosts, with O’Brien getting a nice ratings bounce from firing well-aimed jokes at his employer.
But regardless of who wins the latest late-night brawl, TV analysts are almost certain that Leno — who was the reigning late-night king for almost 15 years before his ill-fated move to primetime — will pull better numbers than O’Brien, whose audience was smaller and skewed younger.
“He will improve on the Conan O’Brien numbers,” said Jason Kanefsky, senior vice president of national broadcast at media-buying firm MPG. “He will reach an older audience. Conan wasn’t delivering as well as the old Jay Leno.” holly.sanders@nypost.com