Palin-Leno crush Letterman-Romney in TV ratings

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With Sarah Palin as his featured guest, Jay Leno on Tuesday night continued his domination of rival David Letterman in the ratings:

Jay Leno had a solid second night back on “The Tonight Show” 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 18-49 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 Monday night number, one indication that Ms. Palin helped maintain the tune-in factor from Mr. Leno’s first night back.

Letterman, whose featured guest Tuesday was Mitt Romney, reached 3.7 million viewers Tuesday, 2.1 million fewer than Leno attracted, and his 1.0 rating in the 18-49 group also trailed Leno's 1.6.

- JP