Letterman says “Goodbye” to Late Night, but who will Say Hello?
Emily Leyva | Contributing Writer
On April 2, David Letterman, host of Late Night, announced his plans for retirement during a taping of his show. Social Media outlets such as Twitter exploded with comments of nostalgia and grievance including messages from past celebrity guests:
@BillyCrystal: “Just had great time with @letterman. On Friday. No one like him.”
To other talk show hosts:
@TheEllenShow (Ellen DeGeneres): “David @Letterman announced he’s retiring in 2015. It’s been 31 incredible years. Television won’t be the same without you, Dave.”
Letterman is the longest running host of a late night talk show in television history. Though he wasn’t the typical host, he often brought a refreshing and sarcastic tone to the world of late night entertainment.
“If you were a celebrity who came on “Late Night” simply to chat about your new movie or album or TV show, good luck to you. Dave might be interested, but more likely he was bored or cranky,” said Todd Leopold in an opinion piece for CNN.com.
Letterman announced that he will be retiring sometime in 2015 and will end more than three decades in late night as one of the most influential hosts in talk show and comedy history.
“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 of the people on the staff, everybody at home, thank you very much,” Letterman said Thursday night. “What this means now is that Paul and I can be married.”
Not 24 hours later, the media speculated Letterman’s motivations and what may come of Letterman and his possible replacement.
James Poniewozik from Time magazine believes that Letterman’s step away from the spotlight may be due to his long-time foe Jay Leno’s retirement plans, which he announced earlier this year.
“After Leno left Tonight in 2009 the Letterman crew hoped it would be Letterman’s chance to rule the late-night ratings in the last stage of his run,” Poniewozik said. “But Conan O’Brien was gone in half a year, Letterman fell behind Leno again, and it doesn’t look like he’s catching Jimmy Fallon, the new standard-bearer of anti-snark, anytime soon.”
Talks have begun on who will replace Letterman, or if there will be any replacement at all. Names such as John Stewart and Stephen Colbert have been thrown around, but some audiences urge CBS to take the opportunity to draw in younger viewers.
According to Fox News, Letterman’s shows have a key demographic ranging from ages 18-49 and only have a combined average of 2.85 million viewers, while Jimmy Fallon of NBC, is getting nearly 4.3 million viewers an episode.
Media executives at CBS told the press that the network needs to find someone who can siphon away some of Fallon’s younger audiences and increase ratings.
“David is not that young anymore,” a CBS official said. “And with Fallon and Kimmel also at 11: 30 p.m. now, CBS may be fearful of losing the young audience and want their own youthful appeal there.”