Word is just in that Robert Halderman, the TV producer whose extortion attempt led to David Letterman‘s confessing a longtime affair with a staffer, has pleaded guilty.
That there will be no drawn-out trial means Letterman potentially dodged a bullet, insofar as any further embarrassing details might have come out. I suppose this is good news for Dave, personally and publicity-wise, although considering that the initial bombshell helped his ratings if anything, maybe more on-air drama might have helped in his new battle with Jay Leno. Speaking of whom…
* Preliminary Monday ratings are in, and Jay Leno‘s total-viewer advantage over David Letterman has shrunk significantly. Of greater concern, though 18-to-49-year-old ratings are not in yet, the gap is close enough that it’s possible Dave may already have caught Jay in the only demographic that matters to advertisers. (Update: Uh-oh, he did.) Since Conan O’Brien was, overall, even with or beating Letterman in the advertising demo, this would not be a great thing for NBC. Particularly since, one could argue, a man who’s been in late-night for two decades has no room to grow his audience, especially on the younger end. But again, early ratings are a moving target, and we need to see where things settle down.
* But Andy Richter is not settling down. Apparently NBC never signed Conan’s sidekick to a no-disparagement agreement, so today he was out there on Regis and Kelly, disparaging: “It’s very frustrating when somebody says — and especially when they’re on videotape — saying, ‘I’m going to take this No. 1 show and hand it over and hope that the next guy gets to — makes it a No. 1 show.’ And then doesn’t… And says things like, ‘Well, they didn’t — I didn’t have any choice. They wouldn’t let me out of my contract,’ which, you know how multimillionaires are always being forced to do things they don’t want to do.”