Ratings Up for Late Night Talk Shows, Down for Prime Time TV

...prime time—that post-dinner, pre-late-news stretch of the networks' glitziest offerings—may no longer be TV's prime time. 

Since the new season began last September, the top five broadcast networks' average audiences are down in the high single digits. Yet the networks' late-night shows, from Late Night with Conan O'Brien to Last Call with Carson Daly to Nightline, are up around 5%. The morning shows also are holding their viewers much better than those in the evening.

Prime-Time...