Late Show With David Letterman Television Program

On June 1, the premiere of "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien" began with a filmed piece that found the tall, skinny host, dressed in suit and tie, jogging across America to get to his new studio in Universal City. But O'Brien might need to pick up the pace. After a strong start in the ratings, "Tonight" is already slipping behind CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman," the rival program that O'Brien's predecessor Jay Leno defeated handily for years.

'Runway' video game: Atari has licensed rights to develop a video game based on "Project Runway" in which it says players will be able to design clothes, outfit models and then walk the runway. It's due out next spring. -- Late-night update: David Letterman's "Late Show" had an average audience of 4.4 million viewers last week, compared with 2.7 million for Conan O'Brien's "Tonight Show." But the latter won a narrow victory among viewers ages 18 to 49, the preferred demographic for many advertisers.

The image is pure show business, a scene ripped from the archives of HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show": As David Letterman lies in a New York City hospital bed, recovering from quintuple bypass surgery, agents and managers are calling up CBS' "The Late Show" to pitch clients as guest hosts. Oh yes, and to ask how Letterman is doing.

After breezing through a battery of TV interviews Sunday with hardly a revealing moment, President Obama finally let out some fresh information Monday night on the "Late Show with David Letterman." He let slip a few personal details about his daughters, an off-limits topic elsewhere. He disclosed the name of a movie he saw recently with his wife. And he managed to talk a little about healthcare and Afghanistan too. The information wasn't exactly breaking news, but the president has been busy hammering home an old message about the overhaul of the healthcare system.

After breezing through a battery of TV interviews Sunday with hardly a revealing moment, President Obama finally let out some fresh information Monday night on the "Late Show with David Letterman." He let slip a few personal details about his daughters, an off-limits topic elsewhere. He disclosed the name of a movie he saw recently with his wife. And he managed to talk a little about healthcare and Afghanistan too. The information wasn't exactly breaking news, but the president has been busy hammering home an old message about the overhaul of the healthcare system.

Is he too cranky? Too ironic? Too . . . Dave? David Letterman is slipping, sliding, flailing. It's no longer Jay vs. Dave in the late-night TV battle. Leno's "Tonight Show" has beaten Letterman's "Late Show" in the Nielsen ratings in 200 of the past 205 weeks, or for almost four consecutive years. Nowadays, Letterman finishes well behind Ted Koppel's "Nightline" at 11:35. He's even wheezing to stay ahead of Conan O'Brien's talk show, which starts at the red-eye hour of 12:35 a.m.

Apparently, TV viewers aren't so interested in the life of the late Pope John Paul II. But Oprah's feud with Dave? Sign 'em up. ABC found no salvation Thursday with "Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II," a two-hour biopic that bombed, attracting an average of only 6.7 million viewers, according to early data from Nielsen Media Research. The movie was trounced by the usual lineups from CBS and NBC, including a repeat of CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (23 million).

Even a lackluster Olympics helped put David Letterman's show back on the victory platform. The Olympic flame, however, didn't leave any late-night afterglow.

Hilton stop: Paris Hilton will make her first appearance on "The Late Show With David Letterman" on Monday on CBS. Hilton was scheduled in November but canceled because of the circulation of explicit films.

David Letterman is inviting Oprah Winfrey to his "Super Bowl of Love." He shouldn't hold his breath. His latest effort to end the feud between the talk show titans was an invitation, issued on the air Wednesday, to come on his show for an "hour of healing." Winfrey has repeatedly spurned Letterman's entreaties. In a Time magazine interview, the daytime TV queen said of two previous appearances on Letterman's show, "Both times I was sort of like the butt of his jokes.

David Letterman took the highly unusual step Monday night of offering another on-air apology to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, apparently in hopes of quieting a surging storm of outrage over a monologue joke last week about one of the former vice presidential candidate's teenage daughters.

On June 1, the premiere of "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien" began with a filmed piece that found the tall, skinny host, dressed in suit and tie, jogging across America to get to his new studio in Universal City. But O'Brien might need to pick up the pace. After a strong start in the ratings, "Tonight" is already slipping behind CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman," the rival program that O'Brien's predecessor Jay Leno defeated handily for years.

CBS is finishing up a deal to renew "The Late Show With David Letterman" for two more seasons at a reduced rate. The network and Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, are putting the finishing touches on a contract extension to run the series in the 2010-11 and 2011-12 television seasons, according to a person close to the situation. The current deal was set to expire next spring.

Thursday was comedy night in the 2008 presidential race. John McCain made a much-delayed appearance on CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman," then moved on to the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, where he shared a dais and alternated monologues with opponent Barack Obama. Sen. Joe Biden was a guest on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno." Sarah Palin was nowhere to be seen, but she was certainly talked about and is scheduled to appear -- as Tina Fey, perhaps? -- on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend.

John McCain tried to make amends with David Letterman on Thursday, telling the late-night comedian that he "screwed up" when he stood him up last month to focus on the economic crisis. McCain's appearance on "Late Show With David Letterman" -- his 13th time on the CBS program -- came after Letterman mocked him for three weeks and suggested his decision to suspend his campaign because of the Wall Street meltdown was merely a political maneuver.

Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared on the "Late Show With David Letterman" on Monday to deliver the "Top Ten Reasons Hillary Clinton Loves America," which included the ability to order her trademark pantsuits around the clock: 10. "We have more Dakotas than every other country combined." 9. "Canadian bacon: soggy and chewy; American bacon: crisp and delicious!" 8. "Thanks to the Internet, I can order new pantsuits 24/7. There's your pantsuit joke, Dave.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was not only the most sought-after diplomat at the United Nations on Thursday. He also was the hottest entertainment ticket in town -- so popular that most of his staff and the traveling press corps couldn't get tickets to see him tape "Late Show With David Letterman." It was more press conference than comedy. Powell faced tough questions on the failure to find Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction, the benefits of going to war, the ongoing attacks on U.

In the final count, the first week of the writers strike helped ABC's "Nightline" gain viewers but not enough to pull past its late-night competition. The live newsmagazine averaged 3.8 million viewers last week, a large boost over the average 3.5 million the program drew this season before the strike began, according to Nielsen Media Research. But even in repeats, NBC's "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" and CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman" had more eyeballs -- 3.87 million viewers and 3.