A sad day!
We have confirmation that David Letterman announced during a taping of his show this afternoon that he’ll be retiring from “The Late Show” next year.
Letterman, with a combined 32 years at NBC’s “Late Night” and CBS’ “The Late Show,” will retire as the longest-serving host in late night.
Like Jay Leno, Letterman will have spent 22 years at 11:35 p.m.
Is this good news for former Letterman writer Louis CK, whose big storyline on "Louie" in 2012 saw him being groomed to replace Letterman at CBS?
If that sounds far-fetched, remember that we learned (months before an official CBS announcement) that Letterman had chosen Tom Snyder to take over "The Late Late Show" on an episode of HBO's "The Larry Sanders Show."
Letterman will always be my all-time favorite talk show host.
Look! Press release!
David Letterman Announces His Retirement from the Late ShowDavid Letterman, during a taping of tonight’s Late Show, said that he informed Leslie Moonves, President and CEO of CBS Corporation, that he will step down as the host of the show in 2015, which is when his current contract expires.
“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. 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,’” said Letterman.
“I just want to reiterate my thanks for the support from the network, all of the people who have worked here, all of the people in the theater, all the people on the staff, everybody at home, thank you very much. What this means now, is that Paul and I can be married.”
“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,” he added, to a standing ovation from the audience in the Ed Sullivan Theater.
Letterman’s career as a late night broadcaster has spanned more than 32 years and nearly 6,000 episodes. He was the first host of Late Night at NBC from 1982-1992, and he has been the only host of Late Show, which he created on CBS in 1993. The two shows have been nominated for 108 Emmys, winning eight. Late Night received a Peabody in 1992, and Letterman became a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2012.
A clip of the announcement will follow in a separate email.
