Tooting Networks’ Horn on Late-Night Television

Much has been made of which late-night network host--David Letterman or Jay Leno--gets the biggest guest stars, but has anyone noticed which host plugs his network most often? One valuable aspect of a late-night talk show, after all, is its use as a promotional platform for the network.

Leno has a reputation as Mr. Able, willing to do what he can for NBC and country. Letterman, meanwhile, is known as an independent operator who doesn’t kowtow to CBS.

In an unscientific Times survey for the first half of the current season, from September through Jan. 20, Leno had 25 guests who were associated with NBC programs on his “Tonight Show,” while Letterman’s “Late Show” featured only 10 guests from CBS programs.

But CBS need not worry, because Leno picked up the slack. Leno had more CBS guests than Letterman did on his own network during the same period--12.

Here’s a list of guests each host featured from his own network, not including cameo or walk-on appearances, since the beginning of the season. (Repeat episodes were not included.)

CBS guests on David Letterman’s “Late Show”:

Harry Anderson (“Dave’s World”)

Jay Thomas (“Love & War”)

Dudley Moore (“Daddy’s Girls”)

Mike Wallace (CBS News)

Dan Rather (CBS News)

Connie Chung (CBS News)

Janine Turner (“Northern Exposure”)

Dave Barry (“Dave’s World”)

Lauren Holly (“Picket Fences”)

Paul Provenza (“Northern Exposure”)

NBC guests on Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show”:

Dabney Coleman (“Madman of the People”)

John Larroquette (“The John Larroquette Show”)

Thomas Hayden Church (“Wings”)

George Clooney (“ER”)

Martin Short (“The Martin Short Show”)

Courteney Cox (“Friends”)

Marilu Henner (“Marilu,” on KNBC-TV)

Jason Alexander (“Seinfeld”)

Matt Lauer (NBC News)

Jane Leeves (“Frasier”)

Melissa Gilbert (“Sweet Justice”)

David Hyde Pierce (“Frasier”)

Jane Pauley (NBC News)

Richard Belzer (“Homicide: Life on the Street”)

Ellen Cleghorne (“Saturday Night Live”)

Julia Louis-Dreyfus (“Seinfeld”)

Shannen Doherty (“Burning Passion: The Margaret Mitchell Story”)

Anthony Edwards (“ER”)

Reba McEntire (“Reba!”)

Bill Cosby (“The Cosby Mysteries”)

Katie Couric (NBC News)

Paul Reiser (“Mad About You”)

Noah Wyle (“ER”)

Faye Dunaway (“A Family Divided”)

Charles Grodin (“Charles Grodin,” on CNBC)