Conan O’Brien Hurt by Jackson Coverage

A much taller, possibly slightly goofier, version of myself, Conan O’Brien, is doing very well in his new gig, I think many of us agree. However, there’s small hiccup in recent weeks, in the form of the media coverage surrounding the death of Michael Jackson.

One of the recipients of the juicy ratings bonanza has been Nightline. That show, which directly competes against the 6’5″ Conan, has a host by the name of Martin Bashir. The man is well known for his documentary “Living with Michael Jackson,” which famously featured a boy whose family later filed a lawsuit against the singer. That show was seen by 27 million Americans in 2003.

According to TVbytheNumbers, ABC News’ “Nightline” was #1 among Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 for the week of June 29, 2009, outperforming NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” and CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman,” according to Nielsen Media Research. This marks the second week in a row “Nightline” placed first in Total Viewers. Both NBC and CBS aired repeats last week.

By the way, earlier this year I had the chance to briefly meet with Conan when he came to visit the old TV station I use to work for. He was super nice obviously, and was on a promotional tour for the Tonight Show, which hadn’t debuted at that point.

Here’s some more pics from his visit: