After three decades in late night, David Letterman is moving on.
During a taping of tonight’s episode of The Late Show, Letterman said “[CBS CEO] Leslie Moonves… and I have had a relationship for years and years and years, and we have had this conversation in the past, and we agreed that we would work together on this circumstance and the timing of this circumstance. And I phoned him just before the program, and I said ‘Leslie, it’s been great, you’ve been great, and the network has been great, but I’m retiring.'”
Letterman went on to express his gratitude to the network, his Late Show coworkers and the fans. “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 and I can be married.”
Back in 1982, Letterman was given his first late night talk show on NBC, “Late Night with David Letterman. However, Letterman was passed over for “The Tonight Show” in 1992 when Jay Leno was chosen to succeed Johnny Carson. In response, Letterman jumped to CBS as the host of The Late Show in 1993 and he recently passed 20 years with the network.
While Letterman hasn’t set a firm date for his final show at CBS, his 33 years in late night television exceeds even Carson’s tenure. Letterman’s departure will also set off a highly competitive search for someone to take over his show.
Personally, I’d love to see Conan O’Brien take over, but he seems happy at TBS. If you have any suggestions for who should take over The Late Show, let us know in the comment section below!
