# How early is Letterman taped? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 2, 2014, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-early-is-letterman-taped/685136 "2014-04-02T02:50:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-early-is-letterman-taped/685136/1 "2014-04-02T02:50:08Z")
I always assumed that the various late night shows were taped the day they aired. However, I’ve noticed that Letterman promos in particular seem to indicate that he films at least a day early. I just show a promo for tomorrow’s show that showed Lady Gaga, and I’ve noticed that on Friday’s they’ll show clips from Monday. So, apparently they film a day early instead of day of? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-early-is-letterman-taped/685136/2 "2014-04-02T03:04:57Z")
For many years, Dave has filmed two shows on Thursday. The second one airs Friday. If they show the celebrities from that night’s show, it is usually previous visit footage. ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-early-is-letterman-taped/685136/3 "2014-04-02T19:53:57Z")
Craig Ferguson frequently jokes about how some of his episodes are taped a day or two early. In many cases, though, I think they’re done on the day they air (well, technically the day before if you’re in the Eastern time zone). ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-early-is-letterman-taped/685136/4 "2014-04-02T20:11:26Z")
What Mahaloth said. The tip-off is that the guests are wearing different clothes and, in most cases, different hair in the preview clips than how they appear on the new show. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-early-is-letterman-taped/685136/5 "2014-04-02T20:12:58Z")
That’s interesting, so the Friday night Letterman shows would likely have stale monologue topics. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-early-is-letterman-taped/685136/6 "2014-04-02T20:30:27Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > That’s interesting, so the Friday night Letterman shows would likely have stale monologue topics. This differs from the other days of the week how, exactly? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-early-is-letterman-taped/685136/7 "2014-04-02T21:30:32Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > That’s interesting, so the Friday night Letterman shows would likely have stale monologue topics. That’s been one of the most consistent criticisms of the delayed Friday show. Letterman usually avoids topics with a short shelf-life for his Friday monologs, but he can still sound dated. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-early-is-letterman-taped/685136/8 "2014-04-02T21:34:11Z")
The truth of modern late night monologues is that the jokes do not have to be funny. The audience will laugh and then applaud after each punch line as, no doubt, instructed in the warm-up. This creates the illusion to the home viewer that what has been said is funny, much like the canned laughter on sitcoms. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-early-is-letterman-taped/685136/9 "2014-04-02T21:34:53Z")
They still use tape?