{"id":649725,"date":"2026-05-05T17:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T17:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/649725\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T17:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T17:07:08","slug":"david-letterman-doubts-late-nights-future-before-colbert-finale-david-letterman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/649725\/","title":{"rendered":"David Letterman doubts late-night\u2019s future before Colbert finale | David Letterman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of the final episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert<\/a> on CBS, former network late-night host David Letterman<\/a> said that he would be \u201csurprised\u201d if other shows in that format last too much longer.<\/p>\n

Letterman, 79, made the remark in an interview with the New York Times<\/a> that was published on Tuesday, in which he also described his \u201cdisbelief\u201d upon learning Colbert\u2019s show had been cancelled.<\/p>\n

Evidently alluding to nightly comedic talkshows hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on ABC as well as Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers on NBC, Letterman remarked the format was \u201cnot completely dead on arrival, but I would be surprised if it lasts more than a year or so.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s such an easy soothing format that it\u2019s got to stay on.\u201d<\/p>\n

When pressed on whether he would truly \u201cbe surprised if late night survives another year or so\u201d, Letterman responded, \u201cWell, maybe specific shows. I don\u2019t think it\u2019ll ever go away because it\u2019s just the best. It\u2019s humans talking to humans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Letterman\u2019s interview comes as the last episode of The Late Show\u2019s 33-year run is scheduled to air on 21 May<\/a>. CBS announced the show\u2019s cancellation<\/a> in July.<\/p>\n

Executives at the time said<\/a> that it was \u201cpurely a financial decision <\/a>against a challenging backdrop in late night\u201d. Yet, while advertising revenue across late-night shows has declined in recent years<\/a>, the decision to cancel and reasoning around it drew skepticism from critics who have pointed out that at the time Paramount \u2013 CBS\u2019s parent company \u2013 was finalizing a multibillion-dollar merger with Skydance that required the approval of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

And Colbert has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump across his two presidencies.<\/p>\n

The cancellation also came days<\/a> after Colbert criticized Paramount for settling a lawsuit with Trump for $16m (\u00a312m) over claims that CBS News deceptively edited a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, his rival in the 2024 presidential election.<\/p>\n

Colbert took over as host on The Late Show in 2015 after Letterman had hosted the show for 22 years.<\/p>\n

Asked about CBS\u2019s explanation that the cancellation was due to financial reasons, Letterman told the Times in Tuesday\u2019s interview: \u201cThey 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Letterman argued that Colbert and his employees deserved better \u2013 as did his fans who tuned in every night his show started at 11.30pm.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat 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?\u201d Letterman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was dumped because the people selling the network to Skydance said, \u2018Oh 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?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just going to go on record as saying: They\u2019re lying.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Times, when asked to comment, a spokesperson for CBS said The Late Show\u2019s cancellation was \u201cunequivocally a financial decision\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of the final episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on CBS, former network late-night host…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,348],"class_list":["post-649725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}