What's the impact of the Leno-Letterman commercial

It was a great move by Letterman/CBS & Leno/NBC to run the commercial during the Super Bowl.

The ad was the funniest aired during the Super Bowl, and was one of the funniest things Leno has down in sometime. Inside baseball, sure -- my kids didn't get it -- but they're not the target audience for late night TV, yet. It showed they both could laugh at themselves, and it generated buzz, not a bad thing for either show. It won't stop the audience erosion that all network TV is experiencing, but it certainly gives adults a reason to talk about Letterman, Leno and their shows.

The real question is: what does Oprah get from appearing with Letterman in a second Letterman/Super Bowl commercial (as she did in 2007)? I'd say funny is funny, and that doesn't hurt.

How is Broadcast News Covering the Economic Crisis?

The election is helping to boost ratings of late night comedy shows like the Daily Show and Colbert Report as well as SNL, Leno, Letterman and O'Brien (That's Conan O'Brien, in case anyone forgotten.)

But one question is this: is the economic crisis generating stronger viewership for broadcast news?

I've written before that I think broadcast news could do a better job in covering the crisis (rather than using dominoes to demonstrate the problem, as CBS recently did).

Check out BusinessWeek's article about Fox Business News: "The Uphill Battle at Fox Business Network: The economic crisis may give Murdoch's year-old business channel a lift in its battle with CNBC." Seems the crisis is helping bring in bigger numbers -- more than 100,000 viewers at a time -- but that may not be enough to compete with CNBC.