Sarah Palin might boost David Letterman The Late Show ratings!

Sarah Palin might boost David Letterman The Late Show ratings! Reports are saying that Sarah Palin could be David Letterman’s reason for boosting his show’s ratings. With the non-stop war of words between Palin and Letterman, The Late Show host’s rating’s are zooming high with people getting more interested of what’s going on.

Sarah Palin would no doubt be horrified by the idea, but there’s a chance she could become the same benefit to David Letterman’s career that Hugh Grant was to Jay Leno’s.

Grant’s 1995 appearance on NBC’s “Tonight” show after a prostitution arrest, where Leno famously asked “what were you thinking?,” was seen in retrospect as a turning point in the late-night race. It drew a huge audience and propelled Leno to the top of the ratings, a spot he would not relinquish.

Letterman did not respond to last week’s battle with Sarah Palin, who called him “perverted” for making a joke about her daughter getting “knocked up” by New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez, and he said in retrospect the remark was in poor taste.

Sarah Palin also snubbed his invitations to appear on the show, but that might not matter. The story had the effect of turning the attention to Letterman at a critical time, during the second week of his new competition with Leno’s replacement, Conan O’Brien.

“It will be interesting to see if that can be maintained or whether it is one of those temporary things,” said Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University.

The final numbers won’t be out until later in the week, but there’s a strong chance that Letterman could average more viewers than the “Tonight” show in the second week of O’Brien’s new 11:35 p.m. job. That hasn’t happened since 2005, and the timing is significant: some of Leno’s old fans may be more amenable to searching for a new late-night habit during the transition period.

It’s difficult to tell whether Letterman received a boost this week because of people interested in what he was going to say about Palin. Strong guests like Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington were a boost, too.

Palin may have inadvertently given Letterman a platform at a time when it is most valuable; the next few weeks will show how he’s been able to use it. Stay tuned!

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