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

Indy Car is a real passion of his and he's never really been able to put as much effort into as he would like, so I really think we'll see him at more races. A lot of people in the mainstream had no idea he was co-owner of a team until his team had Danica Patrick years ago. Right now his team is poised to finish in the top five at the 500, so if you're in need of a "Dave fix" watch the race tomorrow.

 

Actually. I think there may have been another reason...

Johnny Carson's last show was May 22, 1992.

May be that Dave did not want to quit on the same day that his hero did, out of respect.

 

Damn. I've never even met this guy but for the last 3 days, I feel like I've just lost a best friend ...

Goodbye Dave. I know you seem to find this hard to grasp, but a lot of folks love you and ....you will ...be... missed

Have a great life and ....from one fan to another ...

Enjoy every sandwich.....

 

I think this thread has officially bottomed out.

 

They're obviously based on the old Late Night jackets from the '80s.

 

good thing he didn't buy you one!

 

yeah...they were hideous then and hideous now.

 

Ya kiddin' me!? I'd kill for one of those!

 

Paul Schaffer...the only sidekick who could possibly be more annoying than Robin Quivers.

 

Anyone on the staff who doesn't want theirs, please e-mail me ....

 

I used to think that as well but his "hipster goofus" persona certainly was unique and after multiple exposures I began to find it strangely endearing.

He ended up growing on me ...

 

Kickin' myself for not buying a varsity jacket from the CBS Store or from the Hello Deli back in the shows "hey day." Last time I checked CBS.com, they had sold their entire inventory of shirts and mugs. Rupert still has a few shirts, hats, and mugs. Haven't seen a jacket for sale for about 15 years....

 

I feel ya on that one ...wish I had as well

 

It should be fairly obvious from my few posts that I am NOT a Letterman fan. I just never thought the guy was funny, and I just didn't care for his shtick. Paul was all kinds of annoying on levels that even if I tried to watch, his "comments" made me change the station within a few minutes.

And isn't it "hipster doofus"?

 

I passed on tix a few times because I could never find airfare that wasn't outrageous and I'd always say to myself "next summer." It's true, if you requested tickets and you're a teacher; they'd bump you into the summer months knowing that was your vacation time. SMDH at myself.

 

So just trolling? Ok.

 

LOL! Actually it is and that was what I thought I typed ....

And sorry. I'm kinda skimming through at the end here and actually did not catch the gist of your previous posts.

Apologies...

 

Thinking about the upcoming new late-night wars...though I'm not a huge Colbert fan, I have little doubt his show will (eventually) be very good, but I have doubts about how Stephen will fare in the ratings....he'll never overtake the mainstream Fallon, and Jimmy Kimmel's popularity has been steadily growing...so even if Colbert keeps both his AND Dave's old audiences, it's still only going to be the third most popular show in that time slot.

And such a shame that Conan's show, still the funniest in my book, wastes away on the sidelines.

 

Nope, that's not it. It was simply because the May sweeps period this year ended on the 20th, and CBS (obviously) wanted Dave's final episode to be part of the May sweeps.

 

NBC treated Dave and Conan like ******es but they are a well oiled machine when it comes to late night. Little basic things that NBC did way, way, way back decades ago like going around and making sure that their affiliates were either channel 3 or 4 in most markets still has a profound impact on viewing habits and ratings. NBC affiliates often when the local ratings for their cities 11:00 pm news. One of the reasons (many reasons, we've discussed them ad nauseum) that Jay eventually overtook Dave in the ratings and stayed there was because people tired of watching an NBC 11:00 o'clock news show and switching their channels to CBS to watch Dave. Plain and simple. In fact, there's a large segment that didn't tune to Jay - they just tuned out. Anyway, Colbert has an uphill battle. I'm quite sure his show will be VASTLY superior to the Jimmies but after an initial grand entry, he'll really struggle to get mainstream America tuning in. In reality, I predict the death of this venue of American television as we know it within a decade or so. These shows are killing themselves by "going viral." Why stay up and watch when I can watch the best 10 minutes the next morning on Facebook? BUt that's a whole other argument.

 

I hope that Colbert doesn't dumb himself down to try to appeal to the masses. He is probably one of the smartest, cleverest guys ever to host a TV show, and I hope he tries to elevate the audience rather than lowering himself down to that level.

 

He always was an acquired taste for most people.

 

When you see how many posters here, inc me, said they left the show long ago unless a great guest was on, it doesn't surprise me. He is awesome but he started phoning it in for the most part long ago. Plug probably should have been pulled. Would love to see the ratings over the last three or four years.

 

I'm glad someone said that. I have always felt the same. A great musician but as a sidekick I never liked his schtick.

 

I guess I have to agree....he was probably okay in the context he worked in. He was a bit odd....perfect for Letterman. Not my thing though, but I can see your point.