Comedian David Letterman, who brought a sardonic, offbeat wit to late-night television, along with bits such as Stupid Pet Tricks and his Top 10 list, will retire as host of The Late Show on CBS in 2015, he said during the taping of his show in New York.
Letterman, 66, whose contract expires next year, began hosting the CBS show in August 1993, after leaving the rival NBC network, where he originated his late-night TV persona and much of his programme on the Late Night with David Letterman show for many years.
There was no immediate word on who might succeed Letterman in the key 11.30pm slot on CBS, opposite NBC’s top-rated The Tonight Show.
The Emmy-winning host said he had spoken in the past with CBS Corp. president and chief executive officer Leslie Moonves, “and we agreed that we would work together on this circumstance and the timing of this circumstance.
“And I phoned him just before the programme, and I said, ‘Leslie, it’s been great, you’ve been great, and the network has been great, but I’m retiring’,” Letterman told his studio audience, according to a CBS transcript.
“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,” he added.
CBS said Letterman’s announcement elicited a standing ovation from the audience in the Ed Sullivan Theatre.
Letterman’s impending departure from CBS marks the latest in a recent rearrangement of the late-night deck chairs at the major networks.
News of Letterman’s plans to retire came nearly two months after Jay Leno bid farewell as host of NBC’s The Tonight Show, a job Leno assumed in 1992 in a bitter and highly publicised succession of Johnny Carson that led to Letterman’s defection from NBC.
Leno was replaced by Jimmy Fallon, who had hosted the show that airs after The Tonight Show, and Fallon in turn was succeeded by comedian Seth Meyers, who like Fallon is an alumnus of Saturday Night Live.
He managed to keep many celebrities on their toes
Letterman, a late-night fixture for three decades, had jumped ahead of The Tonight Show in the ratings as recently as 2010, when Tonight was briefly hosted by Conan O’Brien.
Fallon’s show averaged 5.1 million viewers a week, compared with 2.9 million for Letterman, according to Nielsen.
Although Late Show trailed Tonight in the ratings war, Letterman long reigned as the critics’ favourite, known for an edgier, irreverent brand of humour and signature bits like Stupid Pet Tricks and the nightly Top 10 list poking fun at current events and pop culture.
But his show had its sober moments as well. Veteran CBS newsman Dan Rather famously showed the strain of reporting on the suicide hijacking attacks that destroyed the World Trade Centre when he choked back tears during a guest appearance for Letterman’s first broadcast after the September 11, 2001 disaster.
Moonves said in a statement that Letterman “managed to keep many celebrities, politicians and executives on their toes – including me”.
The Indianapolis native began his CBS career after 11 years as host of NBC’s Late Night programme in the time slot immediately following The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson at 12.30am, and was long considered Carson’s likely successor.
But when Carson retired in 1992 after nearly 30 years of hosting Tonight, NBC replaced him with Leno, sparking a very public, bitter feud with Letterman.
The following year, Letterman jumped to CBS to go head to head against Leno and his old network in the flagship 11.30pm time slot, setting up one of the most storied rivalries on US television.