Quick Takes: David Letterman’s late-night show wins key demo

The late-night talk wars are heating up again.

In the November sweeps, CBS’ “Late Show With David Letterman” beat NBC’s “Tonight Show With Jay Leno” among adults 18 to 49 for the first time since 1994, according to Nielsen. Letterman scored a 0.9 rating over Leno’s 0.8. Among total viewers, Leno retained a razor-thin edge, 3.6 million vs. 3.5 million.

“Tonight Show” has struggled to recapture its former glory since NBC reinstalled Leno as host in early 2010, following Conan O’Brien’s brief tenure at the show. Before the bungled transition, Leno was routinely drawing more than 5 million viewers per night and Letterman was a distant second.

Another beneficiary of Leno’s decline appears to be ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel. “Jimmy Kimmel Live” was the only late-night show to build viewership compared with last year, up 7% to an average of 2 million viewers.

— Scott Collins

Producers pick documentaries

The Producers Guild of America announced Friday the documentary theatrical motion picture nominees that have advanced in the voting process for the 23rd annual Producers Guild of America Awards.

The nominated films are “Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest,” Michael Rapaport’s documentary on the seminal New York hip-hop group; “Bill Cunningham New York,” Richard Press’ portrait of the New York Times photographer; “Project Nim,” James Marsh’s chronicle of a chimp taken from his mother at birth and raised like a human in New York City in the 1970s; “Senna,” Asif Kapadia’s documentary on the late Brazilian Formula One driver Ayrton Senna; and “The Union,” Cameron Crowe’s look at Elton John and Leon Russell’s album “The Union.”

TV series nominations for the 2012 Producers Guild Awards will be announced Dec. 7. All other nominations for the PGA Awards will be Jan. 3. The winners will be announced Jan. 21 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

— Susan King

Meet Occupy Lincoln Center

The curtain rose late Thursday evening on the newest — and perhaps most highbrow — spinoff of the Occupy Wall Street movement: Occupy Lincoln Center.

In a move as theatrical as it was inevitable (the opera that was “occupied”: Philip Glass’ 1980 work, “Satyagraha,” about the early life of Mohandas Gandhi), more than 200 protesters — joined by Glass himself — gathered outside the Metropolitan Opera in New York last night to praise the art form and its creators but denounce the money it attracts.

The patrons leaving the powerful, final performance of Phelim McDermott’s acclaimed production were greeted with signs that read “Gandhi would be pepper sprayed,” images of Gandhi donning an “OWS” sash around his dhoti and chants like “Off the stage, into the streets.” Police had barricaded the plaza itself, so the group gathered on the Lincoln Center steps.

A few opera-goers were part of the crowd cheering, but some were defiantly not. One shouted, “Get a job!” Others questioned why the group was protesting a nonprofit organization. (A number of people got into prolonged arguments, with one person calling out: “An opera about Gandhi should inspire a debate!”)

— James C. Taylor

Museum shows get road money

The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced $21 million in grants for scholarship, collections conservation and public humanities programming, with a tenth of the money geared toward a traveling exhibitions program that sends shows on art, history and culture to small museums and galleries around the country for a fee of $2,000.

The $2.1-million exhibitions grant — by far the largest announced — goes to the Mid-America Arts Alliance of Kansas City, Mo., which administers the “NEH on the Road” program for the federal grantmaking agency. Abby Sims Beckloff, a spokeswoman for the arts alliance, said the program began in 2005, and the new grant will fund a 3 1/2-year extension through 2015.

“NEH on the Road” has 10 exhibitions on tour, including “Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian Kente and African American Identity,” a show about the colorful tradition of African woven art that originated at UCLA’s Fowler Museum in 1999. Beckloff said the traveling program picks original museum exhibitions such as the Fowler’s, then scales them down and repackages them so they can travel.

— Mike Boehm

A ‘Brothers’ radio reunion

It’s been 10 years since HBO first aired its award-winning World War II miniseries “Band of Brothers.” For the last two years Black Sky Radio and producer Ross Owen have been airing interviews with cast members about it.

This Wednesday, they will host a “Band of Brothers Cast ‘Round Table’ Reunion Show” live (https://blackskyradio.com) at 1:30 p.m. PST. More than 25 cast members will participate.

— Liesl Bradner