David Letterman to retire in 2015. Stephen Colbert to take over.

It seemed rather choppy and, as someone upthread mentioned, they should have taken 2 hours to do the show.

I remember when they did Carson's. It was probably 2 hours and showed where he grew up, his fascination with card tricks and followed him through his career in show business. It was an interesting look at Carson for me. They did a great job if they threw Letterman's together in 2 weeks.

 

There are little dribs and drabs coming out here and there that are making the case that Letterman was asked to leave "Late Show" as opposed to retiring willfully.

I have a feeling that CBS, and especially Les Moonves, pressured Letterman to do "hipper" things, the kind that get trended the next day on social media, to compete with Fallon and Kimmel. There was a rather failed experiment where Dave got a Twitter account, which he referred to as his "Twitter Machine", which they set up next to his desk. He would "live tweet" once per show for about two-three weeks, and his tweets took about 5 minutes of air-time, as he hunted and pecked at his laptop's keyboard, looking just as cool as your grandpa with a Beatle wig.

Dave also recently revealed he had ZERO input into who should succeed him at "Late Show" or who should take over hosting "The Late Late Show", which was once produced by Worldwide Pants, but is now produced in-house (CBS).

For a man, and his production company, who not only produced "Late Show" and "The Late Late Show", but also "Everybody Loves Raymond" which Letterman brought to CBS, CBS appear to be changing the locks once he exits the Ed Sullivan Theater for good.

 

The media made a big deal out of this but really.... why should he have any input? It doesn't really have anything to do with him. It's CBS that's going to have the relationship with the person, while Letterman is on his ranch in Montana.

 

As I said upthread, that is quite likely. At minimum, he quit with the knowledge that if he didn't he was going to be asked to leave. His ratings have been on a steady downward trend, particularly with the 18-49 demographic. When Fallon took over and started doing even better against Dave then Leno had, the writing was clearly on the wall.

That's true. There's really no reason they should have consulted Letterman about the choice. Carson wasn't consulted when he left.

 

Difference is...Carson was The Tonight Show's THIRD host. Letterman brought the first viable late night talk show to CBS.

 

I'm not sure that distinction is particularly significant, given the fact that at the time of his departure Carson had been the host for 30 years and had made the show the dominant force it was at the time. I suppose they could have made a pretense of consulting Dave as a show of respect, but from a pragmatic standpoint there was no reason to give him any significant input into the choice. He's not known for being a talent evaluator, nor is he someone who had his finger on the pulse of what it takes to be successful on late night in 2015, and he won't have any sort of producer role with the show after he leaves.

 

I think he changed when 911 happened and his heart surgery .
For me, I could see it. I could tell he not having fun years ago.
He should of quit on his own , instead of being forced out.
Someday, somebody will replace Les Moonves , nobody
irreplaceable.

 

This is a good read. Former writers discuss rejected bits, with comments from Dave.

http://www.vulture.com/2015/05/23-lost-laughs-of-letterman.html

 

Great read, thanks for posting. I used to fantasize about being talented enough to work on a show like this, especially Letterman's (during the NBC days at least). Reading that though is just a reminder of how brutal and bruising comedy writing can be. Ouch!

dan c

 

Rickles is on Monday. They still have time to do the rejected zoo animals bit...

 

CBS only leases the Ed Sullivan Theater. My guess is, once Dave leaves, everything will be stripped, and Colbert will broadcast from somewhere
else. Where, I don't know.

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/stephen-colberts-late-show-stay-720643

 

OK.....good.

 

Yes indeed. The fact that Colbert will be using the Ed Sullivan Theater is what's causing the ill-considered three-month gap between Letterman's exit and his debut. They need time to rennovate and remodel the theater.

 

I don't think it's ill-conceived to have a gap. Having a new host debut during the summer (when TV viewership is way down) doesn't seem like a great idea.

 

On the other hand, having the new host debut immediately after the old host leaves allows them to use the momentum of Dave's departure to promote Colbert's debut. And it would give Colbert a chance to try to hold on to Dave's regular viewers. As it is, Dave's audience will disperse and find other things to watch, and when Colbert debuts he will have to build his entire audience from scratch, since he will be stepping into a timeslot that will have been filled with the equivalent of dead air all summer.

 

Stephen Colbert as George Harrison:

 

Tina Fey was on Letterman last night. It was a pretty funny bit but drove me nuts how often she looked at herself on the monitor to her lower right. Ar 0:56 on this clip she looks at it for almost ten seconds straight. Really weird.

 

I love Tina and that bugged me too. I guess she was nervous about the dress gag.

 

I thought First Aid Kit were excellent last night.

 

I think she was concerned about (sorry, prudes) her seemingly erect nipples. She even attempts to cover her breasts for a moment. After all, Dave does keep it slightly above freezing in there...

 

I thought it was fun.

 

I don't know if CBS is necessarily worried about appealing to Letterman's current demographic when Colbert takes over. I think they generally want to find a younger demographic who isn't necessarily among Letterman's core audience.

Plus, there is a real concern that viewer fatigue could set in after all of the hoopla leading up to Letterman's final episode. The publicity of Dave's retirement would be competing with the anticipation of Colbert's new show. Having a break in between not only helps them to remodel the theater for Colbert, but build up anticipation for his debut.