Posted on 04/04/2014 8:32:54 AM PDT by PaulCruz2016
LOS ANGELES – David Letterman, 66, rattled the entertainment industry on Thursday when it was revealed that after more than 32 years and almost 6,000 episodes in the late-night arena, he will retire in 2015 when his CBS contract expires. According to a source closely connected to the “Late Show” host, newly appointed “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon – his direct competition – inadvertently gave Letterman the final nudge.
“David is older now; he had heart surgery some time ago and sees both Jimmy Kimmel [of ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”] as well as the more formidable Jimmy Fallon now gaining on him…” the insider told FOX411. “Fallon is getting record ratings so Letterman will segue out while he’s still on top. It’s dignified. If Fallon weren’t so hot, he might have stuck around longer.”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Anyone else notice that Fallon is suddenly pumping the big ratings by taking shots at Obama?
two NYC idiots pandering to NYC effetes.
Never was funny.
Repeating same punch line over and over thinking it s funny.......
Funny looking though.
Just an old bitter Liberal coot, a perve and a hater.
Good riddance to his classless act.
I saw Letterman a few weeks ago, by accident
He spend about 5 minutes of his opening monologue doing Dick Cheney Hunting jokes. Yes, Really. It wasn’t a repeat.
It was just pathetic. No wonder he is irrelevant.
I have never, NEVA, I say, understood this guy, nor have I ever thought him even mildly amusing. He (1) has a vicious streak, and (2) He always struck me as some sort of autistic son that a hardware guy in South Dakota might keep in the back room for fear he might talk to customers. Might be taught to repair screens sort of thing.
In my lifetime we have gone steadily downhill from Dave Garroway, to Steve Allen, to Jack Parr, to Johnny Carson, and to Leno (OK OK< I think Leno is funny and I am jealous of the cars) ... But Letterman? WTF eggzackly IS Letterman? Why was there ever a Letterman?
Of course the Left-Wing boolshiite is the merde-en-gelée on this cow-flop cake of a human imitator.
After the Palin episode, the Tonight Show is back on my DVR.
The NBC execs had it right this time, but there should be a place for Leno, somewhere. Perhaps more often in Vegas, where he was performing on weekends while working the Tonight Show.
Letterman has been “failing up” for most of his career. He appropriated bits from Steve Allen’s various talk shows and profited from the fact that (during his early NBC days), he had a huge lead-in from Johnny Carson, and there was no competition on the other networks. And while Dave was notoriously distant from his fans, he always knew the right backsides to kiss. Consider his relationship with CBS President Les Moonves. Les has been paying Dave up to $30 million a year for a third-place show. Nice work if you can get it.
Fact is, Letterman “peaked” shortly after starting his present gig at CBS. Once Jay Leno got his show together, he blew Letterman off the map and dominated the late night ratings for most of his run. In recent years, Letterman has been a consistent third at 11:30, running behind Leno and Nightline. When the news show shifted to 12:30, Letterman ran ahead of Jimmy Kimmel, but recently Kimmel has been beating him as well.
True, Dave is leaving on his own terms. But the hand-writing was on the wall when he signed the most recent one-year extension to his contract. CBS was happy to give him what he wanted, and no more. If the network wanted to keep him for another five years, they would have gladly suggested a longer extension.
Letterman is probably the luckiest guy in show business. He was funny back in the late 70s and early 80s, though you can find the inspiration for much of his material in Steve Allen’s syndicated talk show of the mid-60s. He made his name when there was virtually no competition, and used his departure from NBC to milk millions out of CBS. Truth is, Letterman could have succeeded Carson if he had played his cards right.
Dave was so convinced that he had the job that he burned some bridges with key people at the network and completely ignored the affiliates. Meanwhile, Leno was willing to do anything NBC asked and always made it a point to stop by the local affiliate and tape a promo for his guest hosting on the Tonight Show. When Carson retired, the affiliate board was among his strongest supporters and they stayed with him when Leno stumbled out of the gate.
Another interesting sidelight is how Letterman’s personal troubles rarely, if ever, made the news. He was an absolute s.o.b. to his first wife (he described himself as a “moody drunk” during this period, despite the fact that she supported him until he became a successful stand-up). But to my knowledge, no one has ever tried to interview the first Mrs. Letterman. Even Merrill Markoe, the writer/producer who was his live-in girlfriend for years (and a key reason for his success at NBC) has been guarded in her comments about Dave and their relationship.
Of course, the ultimate example of Dave’s power (and status as a media darling) came when his intern scandal blew up. People I knew at CBS told me that Letterman had been bedding young female staffers for years; when he moved into the Ed Sullivan Theater, the network paid to have an apartment built for Dave in the upper level of the building and there were plenty of nights he didn’t go home to the woman who replaced Ms. Markoe (Regina Lasko). You may recall that Letterman finally married Lasko (the mother of his son) after the scandal erupted.
In fact, news of Letterman’s philandering broke over the same weekend as the Tiger Woods scandal. Turns out that Dave had the same proclivities as the pro golfer, but he was portrayed as victim, because the intern’s boyfriend (a 60 Minutes producer, no less) tried to blackmail him. Hope Letterman gave his publicist a bonus; it’s not often you can turn your own misdeeds into an out-pouring of public sympathy.
Like a lot of liberal media types, David Letterman is proof that you don’t have to be successful to have a long and lucrative career. As long as you suck up to the right elites (and keep the media in your back pocket), you can earn millions and never worry about whether the public actually likes you and will watch your program. In that regard, the jury on Letterman came back a long time ago.
Conan’s ratings have been disappointing on TBS; there was a report in the WSJ about a year ago on the “decision” that Time Warner was facing: keep paying Conan a huge salary (and paying production costs) for his show that was drawing dismal ratings. If CBS tried to hire O’Brien, Time Warner wouldn’t object—or try to keep him.
this bum cannot be off the airways soon enough for me. He makes my skin crawl.
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I could not agree more. I never watched his show but would sometimes see clips of it on other venues. He is smarmy beyond words. Never did get his popularity. I guess a lot of people have low entertainment expectations.
I used to watch him regularly when I was younger and stayed up late. I found him to be be funny in a quirky way, sort of like how Steve Allen was. He was brought in as the young, hip guy that was an alternative to Johnny Carson and his ilk. Now, Letterman is is just a bitter has-been. He can't tell a joke because he is no longer funny. He's become a bitter partisan hack. If you met him somewhere you'd avoid him because his bitterness is so obvious you'd find him repellant. Bitter old farts are not funny. The fact that he refuses to make a joke at Obama's expense shows that he just doesn't get "funny" anymore. He's no longer about humor. R.I.P., Letterman.
For my money he has never been anything other than a caked rectum. Nothing more than that.
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Or, as Gwyneth Paltrow might say, a “CONSCIOUS UNCOUPLING”."
Libs love remaking the English language to fit their agendas/needs.
BOLD IS MINE!
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That would be sweet. Mr. h and I are of the generation who go to bed kinda' early but we are also of the generation that has DVR so I think we'll take a peak at Fallon.
He was funny on SNL but that is a whole other game.
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I loved Steve Allen and his infectious laugh!
He was interviewing someone about a play or movie they were in, but paused as if he couldn't remember the title so he says:
You're in (pause)(then schmok, schmok, schmok laugh).
He said he realized he had just said "Urine".
You had to be there - the audience roared with laughter. Steve Allen could make good fun of himself and show his guests respect.
Saw Letterman absolutely crucify a guest once, right to the person’s face. Can’t remember who it was. I wondered right then why anyone would go on his show.
Leno worked every weekend already. He has been working seventy hour weeks since he took the tonight show gig. He has publicly said that he never spent a dime of his TV money and has between $250 - $350 million in the bank.
He has no need to work and is in his sixties. He went out on top and I would be shocked to see him return to a regular TV show.
BTW Letterman has at least $350 million banked as he has had several shows form World Wide Pants, his production company and he owns both The Late Show With David Letterman and the Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson.
As a matter of fact one of the reasons that Letterman didn’t get the Tonight Show is that he had a contract that required that his production company would own any show he was on. NBC had already had Carson owning the Tonight Show production since the Seventies and they didn’t want to lose any future rights to production.
Another avenue to push Ronan Farrow on us.
Always like Fallon on Saturday Night Live, have never cared for Seth Myers, and his show is awful IMO, will miss Paul Schaefer, great bandleader. Not sure Leno wants back in, Conan was always Entertaining, then again, I like Craig Ferguson, and his Robot...lol Letterman was Entertaining until he had the heart attack, he became bitter, an far too political. Then he became offensive, and often times he just lied for his political agenda, now he is maudlin, and I think is just tired of it all. Enjoy your family David, there are parts of your Entertainment career we will all miss. What ever happened to Doc Severenson?
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Wonder how Letterman would take it getting the abuse back at him.
Rush was on years ago. Can't remember how it went, but it was easy to see Rush's brain tied behind his back was far ahead of Letterman's brain.
Letterman was such a lightweight. A dopey lightweight who thought he was getting the best on Rush.
I ALMOST felt sorry for Letterman.
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