According to CNNMoney David Letterman is going to retire next year. I don’t watch Letterman anymore, but in the 80s, in college he was the best. he was so different from the usual late night fare at the time, edgy, cynical. In my opinion Letterman in the 80s was one of the best shows on TV for all time. Letterman in the 80s was the peak for Late Night TV.
And with Letterman stepping down, the late-night network talk show is officially dead.
I haven’t watched Dave in ages, but I’ll still miss him. What Carson was to his generation, he was to me.
Why’s that? Or do you mean “officially dead to me”?
Shows like the Tonight Show and Late Night used to be a huge part of the cultural conversation — getting on the Tonight Show was like seal of approval, and once you got there, you knew you’d made it. They’ve been growing steadily more irrelevant in the last decade or so, and with Leno gone and Letterman now going —the last two people who really defined (for better or worse) how these shows worked and who made them what they were — I personally think it’s time to move on.
They were a huge part of the cultural conversation because they were unique. They aren’t now. It’s not just Tonight and Late Night – there’s The Late Show, and Kimmel, and Conan, and Ferguson, and Stewart/Colbert, and others.
The general category of “after the late news” is still highly relevant, it’s just fragmented.
There’s your chance, Leno!
Psst – I’d already merged the threads, making that a link loop from which there is no escape.
I think it somehow became a simulmerge. Ninja’d by the mods!
They should invite Conan to take over.
I recall seeing a few months ago that Dave’s contract expired in 2015 and I remember thinking at the time that this would probably be it for him. Ah well, nothing can last for ever and frankly I don’t catch his show as often as I used to but I will miss him. I hope he makes some appearances and doesn’t just vanish into retirement like Johnny did.
What are Paul’s career options?
Well, he can basically work with whoever he wants, doing whatever he wants within the field of music or musical entertainment. The guy is a freaking genius and as well respected as Quincy Jones. Paul won’t be idle unless he wants to be idle.
Honestly, I expected this to have occurred around the time that news of his sex scandal broke. I didn’t think that his credibility would have survived that. He managed to gently sweep that disturbing matter under the rug and move forward. But now that Leno is done, I think that Letterman sees the writing on the wall.
Kimmel is a show for young adults, Conan’s numbers have never been good. Jimmy Fallon is simply cruising on borrowed time. And everybody else is just…there. The reasons for late night talk shows no longer exist as celebrities and entertainers can be seen on many different mediums without having to stay up late to do so.
Dave is an extremely wealthy man and he can simply walk away knowing that while he didn’t get the Tonight SHow he did leave his own mark AND he outlasted Leno. That’s a three-fer and you don’t often get too many of those.
Will Ferguson move up into Dave’s show? If so, I would love it. He’s really the best late night comedian.
I hope so. Dave has stayed too long. I’m glad he was around for most of the time, but it’s time for him to pass the torch. I’m not surprised that it follows Leno’s retirement, it should have been Dave on the Tonight Show, Leno has been ‘officially dead to me’ for a long time.
He is and I want him to move into the 11:30 slot, but to make his show more like Graham Norton’s. Have everyone out there, have a limited amount of pre-scripted questions, and just have fun.
It’d be great.
I mostly agree with you here on all points. The biggest issues of course is that there aren’t just 3 channels anymore; and the late night execs seem to think that’s not a valid reason for a late night talk show to be as successful as it was back in Carson’s day. They’re stupid. However I think there’s still a market for late night TV. I just don’t stay up for it. 
I DVR Fallon and Kimmel and watch them everyday when I get home from work. It’s perfect for me. No ongoing story lines, I get a usually humorous monologue on current topics, I can FF through the boring guests, etc. I can usually watch both Kimmel and Fallon in 30-45 minutes.
Where I disagree with you is that Fallon is cruising on borrowed time. I’m a big fan of Kimmel, and I think night in and night out Fallon is putting on the better show. You can tell he’s excited to be there; he’s not afraid of a self deprecating laugh; which was something Kimmel, Letterman, or Leno aren’t capable of. (Letterman used to be… thinking back to the suit of Velcro and things like that.)
I hear Louis CK and Seinfeld are already in talks to replace him.*
*No not really, folks. It’s a plot point from an episode of “Louie.”