{"id":24895,"date":"2026-05-05T19:25:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T19:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/24895\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T19:25:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T19:25:25","slug":"david-letterman-reflects-on-the-late-show-and-has-harsh-words-for-new-cbs-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/24895\/","title":{"rendered":"David Letterman Reflects on \u2018The Late Show\u2019 and Has Harsh Words for New CBS Owners"},"content":{"rendered":"

For an essay on the end of \u201cThe Late Show\u201d<\/a> on CBS, I spoke to its first host, David Letterman, who was cleareyed about the program\u2019s cancellation. Here are edited excerpts from our conversation:<\/p>\n

What was your first thought when you found out \u201cThe Late Show,\u201d which you helped create and where you served as the first host, was canceled?<\/p>\n

Disbelief. Then it seemed like a botched holdup. When we got the facts about the Ellison family [David Ellison, with backing from his father, Larry, bought CBS\u2019s parent company, Paramount Global], I took great delight in referring to the principal as the Ellison Twins. I was later corrected and told it\u2019s just one guy. I didn\u2019t care and I still refer to him as twins. There\u2019s also the old man, Larry. Is it in fact Larry?<\/p>\n

Yes.<\/p>\n

As best I understand it, he invented the Slinky. And the Ellison twins are willy-nilly spending the old man\u2019s money. So that was what ran through my head. Then I wondered: What the hell have they done to Stephen [Colbert]? And I would say farther down on the list is your point: Wait a minute, this used to be my show. It\u2019s like driving by your old neighborhood and realizing that where you used to live, they\u2019re putting up an adult bookstore.<\/p>\n

Are you far enough away from hosting \u201cThe Late Show\u201d that you don\u2019t feel a sense of ownership anymore?<\/p>\n

Yes. Time has separated me from the genealogy of the show. On the other hand, if there\u2019s outrage to be directed at management, either real or imagined, I\u2019m all in. Let\u2019s go.<\/p>\n

CBS says it canceled \u201cThe Late Show\u201d because of financial reasons. Do you believe that?<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t share the books with me. All of television seems to have been nicked by digital communication and streaming platforms and on and on. TV may be not the money machine it once was. On the other hand, what about the humanity for Stephen and the humanity of people who love him and the humanity for people who still enjoyed that 11:30 respite?<\/p>\n

He was dumped because the people selling the network to Skydance said, \u201cOh no, there\u2019s not going to be any trouble with that guy. We\u2019re going to take care of the show. We\u2019re just going to throw that into the deal. When will the ink on the check dry?\u201d I\u2019m just going to go on record as saying: They\u2019re lying. Let me just add one other thing, Jason. They\u2019re lying weasels. [Asked to comment, a spokesman for CBS said, \u201cUnequivocally a financial decision.\u201d]<\/p>\n

CBS isn\u2019t just changing shows. They are shifting business models, leasing the time slot to Byron Allen, who will sell his own ads for his show, \u201cComics Unleashed.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was recently driving around on an interstate and all I would see was these rental places where you store your stuff. And I just thought these didn\u2019t used to exist. You used to have to be responsible for your own stuff. But now everywhere you look there\u2019s warehouses and rental facilities. And I think that\u2019s not a bad parallel for what\u2019s happening in network television. We now have this, but we\u2019re just going to lease it to Byron Allen and he\u2019ll make pennies on every dollar or whatever he\u2019s making. But you know, everything changes in life, as people of a certain age understand, both good and bad.<\/p>\n

You knew Byron Allen back when he was a teenager. Both of you, along with Jay Leno, wrote jokes for Jimmie Walker in the 1970s. Did he show signs of being a future billionaire?<\/p>\n

No. It was like, Do you need a ride to soccer practice? That\u2019s what he showed signs of. But he\u2019s been wildly more successful than any hundred of us. I periodically talk to him, and neither he nor I understand how he became a billionaire. God bless him. To hell with CBS. To hell with Skydance. To hell with the Winslow twins or whoever the hell these guys are. But Byron, he\u2019ll still be providing comedy in that time period. I think that\u2019s a valuable bit of resolution here.<\/p>\n

Have you talked to Byron Allen since he got the job?<\/p>\n

No, I\u2019m hoping if I say enough silly things about him, he\u2019ll call me.<\/p>\n

Do you have a favorite memory from \u201cThe Late Show\u201d?<\/p>\n

The band had barely quit playing and they dismantled the set and there were dumpsters on 53rd Street, and as I walked out of the building, I saw the detritus and the debris of my life at CBS being tossed into the dumpster. Now, that\u2019s not a pleasant memory. I don\u2019t know, talk to somebody else.<\/p>\n

Since late night seems to be on the wane \u2026<\/p>\n

We still have Jimmy. We still have Seth [Meyers]. It\u2019s not completely dead on arrival, but I would be surprised if it lasts more than a year or so. But it\u2019s such an easy soothing format that it\u2019s got to stay on.<\/p>\n

You\u2019d be surprised if late night survives another year or so?<\/p>\n

Well, maybe specific shows. I don\u2019t think it\u2019ll ever go away because it\u2019s just the best. It\u2019s humans talking to humans.<\/p>\n

On a different subject, when you were on \u201cThe Late Show,\u201d you competed with Jay Leno\u2019s \u201cTonight Show.\u201d Could you imagine having Jay as a guest on your Netflix show, \u201cMy Next Guest Needs No Introduction\u201d<\/a>?<\/p>\n

We think about it from time to time. This is not a bad idea. In answer to your question, of course I would love to. I\u2019m sorry, did I say \u201clove\u201d? Of course I can imagine having Jay. I mean, when I was a kid, he was the funniest man in comedy. So, just based on that alone, why wouldn\u2019t you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For an essay on the end of \u201cThe Late Show\u201d on CBS, I spoke to its first host,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[15236,13039,13094,13822,3753,3752,8,15239,15238,9,15237,1529,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-24895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-colbert","9":"tag-comedy-and-humor","10":"tag-content-type-personal-profile","11":"tag-david","12":"tag-david-1983","13":"tag-ellison","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-late-show-with-stephen-colbert-tv-program","16":"tag-letterman","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-stephen","19":"tag-television","20":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116523612395824965","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}