The Media Post's TV Watch blog warns that earlier commercials may be coming to interrupt the usually "relatively commercial-free first half hour" of late-night talk shows. There may be some pressure on late-night comics to come up with shorter jokes.
Meanwhile viewers should start complaining, because now a bunch of commercials will interrupt the usual relatively commercial-free first half hour of your favorite late-night network talk show.
Jokes in those monologues that need a lot time to develop will now need to be rewritten. CBS has already been experimenting in running early-in-the-show commercials this summer during "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" - all because of the coming commercial ratings, which are replacing program ratings as the main currency for TV advertising deals.
Good news: David Letterman typically has only has about three bits in his short monologue. That means early commercials - like those for young-skewing products, theatrical movies, videos, and mobile phone companies - can be easily squeezed into the early part of his show. The same can't be said for NBC's Jay Leno, who seems to have an extra-long initial monologue - seven or eight bits for his intro.
Because viewership is higher earlier in the evening, commercials - now subject to commercial ratings - will run earlier.
Inserting advertisements and cutting into monologue time is likely to be another bad move by the television networks. This will just be one more reason people move to the Internet to watch video clips or find alternative content.
