The Guardian: David Letterman announces retirement from The Late Show
CBS employee David Letterman, the current grandfather of American late night television, is retiring from The Late Show in 2015.
Letterman made the announcement during a taping of his show at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City on Thursday.
“What this means now, is that Paul and I can be married,” Letterman joked, referring to his longtime bandleader and sidekick Paul Shaffer.
“We don’t have the timetable for this precisely down – I think it will be at least a year or so, but sometime in the not too distant future, 2015 for the love of God, in fact, Paul and I will be wrapping things up,” Letterman said.
Letterman said he had told CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves about his decision to not renew his contract.
“The man who owns this network, Leslie Moonves, he 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,” Letterman said during the taping. “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 has consistently ranked second in the late-night ratings since ABC moved comedian Jimmy Kimmel into a directly competing slot in January 2013. Both Letterman and Kimmel regularly attract 2.6-2.8m viewers, but Kimmel has proven more successful at drawing the younger viewers valued most by advertisers.
In February, longtime rival Jay Leno turned over the Tonight Show to current host Jimmy Fallon. Fallon's show has been far and away the leader across all age groups, with 4.3m viewers for the last week of March.
Letterman started his career in Indiana and made his first move to evening chat shows with Late Night with David Letterman, which debuted in February 1982. He was thought to be the forerunner for The Tonight Show after Johnny Carson retired in 1992. The job was given to Jay Leno. Letterman ended his relationship with NBC and moved to CBS to host the Late Show with David Letterman.
In his 32-year career, Letterman has appeared on nearly 6,000 episodes of the two shows and won numerous awards, including eight Emmys and a Peabody. He became a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2012.
Letterman was at the center of an extortion scandal in 2009 after CBS producer Robert Joel Halderman demanded $2m to keep quiet about Letterman’s multiple affairs with employees of his production company, Worldwide Pants. Halderman received a fake $2m check from Letterman, went to work and was then arrested after leaving his office at CBS News.
"Would it be embarrassing if it were made public? Perhaps it would, especially for the women,” Letterman said during a monologue where hedetailed the incident.
In January 2000, Letterman had quintuple bypass heart surgery and took a hiatus from the show.
“When Dave decided on a one-year extension for his most recent contract, we knew this day was getting closer, but that doesn’t make the moment any less poignant for us," Moonves said in a statement.
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hahahaha Letterman is the
<p>hahahaha Letterman is the best stand up comic in USA --He is really funny and have that kind of spontaneous humor ,that few people have </p><p>To my opinion he is one of a kind , No one can replace his wit humor , and he is nobel in his jokes cuze he never does jokes against someone who is weak, poor , or sagainst small countries . But his jokes are all on the big and the powerfull people and nations </p><p>When it was that vicious game against Albania with the Watch of Ex President Bush Jr, Letterman was the only whu did not use that fact to do jokes against us , as did all the other comics </p><p>I have been watching his show every evening at 11;30 --He is funny in every word --and sometimes people have hard time to understand him right way, cuze <span style="font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.7em;">He is very sophisticated in his jokes .<br />His focus are politicians , especially the right wing --hahahahahaa </span></p><p>One of the best of his shows was when had in his show Charlie Sheen , cuze Charlie is street smart , and full of charm and they were both quick respnse to each others --It was a real pleasure to watch them .... </p><p>Now just began Letterman's show at NBC ....He is giving his famous Top ten List ..lol</p>
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