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Ventriloquist bits on ‘AGT’ aren’t exactly new

With all due respect to the judges on “America’s Got Talent,” the show’s current frontrunner, ventriloquist Paul Zerdin (above), is not exactly a fresh act.

Sure, he’s great. And he’s netting rave reviews from judges like Howard Stern and Howie Mandel. But when they call Zerdin’s act novel and unique, they actually do a disservice to other, more talented ventriloquists. Performers like Nina Conti and Ronn Lucas cooked up the act years ago — and even did it better.

It’s something first noted by my Daily News colleague, Corky Siemaszko, and expounded on last week in great detail by Yahoo.com pop culture critic Ken Tucker.

Zerdin “applied a mechanical device to Howie Mandel’s jaw, enabling Zerdin to control the artificial mouth and speak for Mandel,” Tucker wrote. “Aside from the fact that it momentarily kept Mandel from doing his own talking, it was only mildly amusing and ... not remotely innovative.”

In the form of videos on YouTube, there’s been evidence for years of Lucas using a mechanical mask to turn a member of his audience into a “dummy.”

It’s great that a ventriloquist could win “AGT.” It’s just surprising that such showbiz veterans as Stern and Mandel would declare Zerdin’s particular act as being original in any way. *** A research firm called Peel has released some interesting facts about Stephen Colbert and his debut as the host of “The Late Show.” Peel found that: * Right-leaning and left-leaning viewers stayed tuned-in in roughly the same proportion (59.1 percent left vs. 58.4 percent right) .

* But only 57.2 percent of viewers of the old “Colbert Report” on Comedy Central remained loyal by sticking around for the first new “Late Show.” By comparison, 60.9 percent of the debut episode’s viewers had been loyal watchers of David Letterman.

* Meanwhile, viewers who tuned out from the Colbert’s “Late Show” didn’t go to cable or the Internet. Instead, they were most likely to switch channels to the rivals: “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon” on NBC or “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on ABC.

Meanwhile, CBS is aiming to get Colbert’s clips out to the audience — using the Web.

The network plans to take advantage of the new “Late Show” host because his audience, like those of his rivals, is younger and far more Internet savvy than followers of old-school hosts.

Scenes shared online from both Fallon and Kimmel have become huge promotional sources for both shows, creating buzz and big bucks.

CBS boss Les Moonves told investors at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference that Letterman didn’t care about Internet traffic.

“Dave wasn’t into it,” the CBS chief said. “It’s a growing area.” He noted that Fallon’s online numbers “are phenomenal. We think Colbert’s numbers will be phenomenal as well ... it’s a great secondary source of revenue.”