Rj. Schaefer et Rk. Avery, AUDIENCE CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF LATE-NIGHT WITH LETTERMAN,DAVID, Journal of broadcasting & electronic media, 37(3), 1993, pp. 253-273
Audience conceptualizations of Late Night with David Letterman were ex
amined through a two-step process that included a mail survey and focu
s group interviews. Letterman fans associated the program with a wide
range of activities and viewer interactions that occurred during and a
fter viewing. Focus group participants indicated that competent viewer
s interpret the program as a sophisticated parody of conventional tele
vision talk. These results reinforce the notion of an active audience
that interprets television texts according to genre-derived meanings.