David Letterman enjoying a laugh.
In 1993, David Letterman left NBC and the Late Night franchise after being passed over as Johnny Carson’s replacement in favor of the recently-retired Jay Leno. His eventual destination was CBS, where he started his own late-night talk show, The Late Show with David Letterman. Some 21 years later, Letterman isn’t the king of late night, but he’s the undisputed critical favorite and all-time champion of late night talk shows, mixing irreverence with some impressively weird interviews to create one of the most unpredictable shows in post-primetime TV. Well, at some point in 2015, the madness will end and CBS will be looking for a new hand to guide its Late Night ship. That’s right, David Letterman will be retiring.
“I phoned just before the program, and I said ‘Leslie [CBS President and CEO Leslie Moonves], it’s been great, you’ve been great, and the network has been great, but I’m retiring,” Letterman told his audience. “I just want to reiterate my thanks for the support from the network, all of the people who have worked here, all of the people in the theater, all the people on the staff, everybody at home, thank you very much. What this means now, is that Paul [Shaffer] and I can be married.”
Of course, in true Letterman style, he hasn’t announced a finale date or a replacement for him in the hosting chair, but all he’s said is that in 2015 he and Paul will be taking their act off of television to do whatever it is television show hosts do when they finally retire. I imagine Paul will resume his music career and Dave, well… he can do pretty much anything, or pretty much nothing.
Tags: television, late night television, the late show with david letterman, david letterman, david letterman retiring in 2015, david letterman retiring, celebrities, talk shows, cbs, les moonves, craig ferguson, jimmy kimmell, paul shaffer
