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| David Letterman's final ever Late Show - live! | David Letterman's final ever Late Show - live! |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| 11.48pm ET04:48 | |
| Wheel Of Fortune now with an answer consisting of: Good Riddance To David Letterman. Another nice little touch. Presidents and the Simpsons are the winners so far, and… we’re into a break | |
| 11.47pm ET04:47 | |
| Now some bants with Paul: they’ve got a show in Las Vegas with white tigers, apparently | |
| 11.46pm ET04:46 | |
| Now on to an Ellan Gonzalez joke: “he’s 21 and just announced yesterday he wants to come back to America - should I take it personally?” | |
| 11.45pm ET04:45 | |
| Ohhhhhh, a Simpsons segment. That was nice - Homer and Marge talk about how the two shows have been on for almost the same amount of time. | |
| 11.44pm ET04:44 | |
| This feels a bit tepid. I don’t want to be “that guy” but there aren’t that many zingers so far, he’s just going through the motions. We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt though | |
| 11.42pm ET04:42 | |
| Next it’s a segment of stuff they would have done on Thursday… if they had a show: a joke about Hilary Clinton’s donations, one on Mad Max and Mike Huckabee | |
| 11.41pm ET04:41 | |
| Now it’s on to the crew. He’s showing a video to the staff where he says goodbye by appearing as a hologram and blows a kiss at them. That wasn’t very funny. Now he’s making fun of his own poor eyesight and the size of the words on the cue cards. | |
| 11.39pm ET04:39 | |
| First gag is about the Tonight Show. “I’ve got a feeling I’m not going to get the Tonight Show”. He’s probably still a bit annoyed about it to be fair. Second joke is about scientology: good job they booked Travolta earlier in the run… | |
| 11.38pm ET04:38 | |
| Obviously the place is packed. “Pleas be seated. I don’t know what to do,” says Letterman as the crowd refuse to sit down. This could go on a while. | |
| 11.38pm ET04:38 | |
| Shaffer and co really did go for it with that intro. That was some Robert Fripp level of wig out. Now the floor is Dave’s… | |
| 11.36pm ET04:36 | |
| Things kick off with a riff on Gerald Ford’s inauguration as all the living presidents repeat: “Our long national nightmare is over… David Letterman is retiring”. Nice touch that. | |
| Updated at 11.37pm ET | |
| 11.35pm ET04:35 | |
| Ok, we are minutes away now. The CBS news team are just signing off. Apparently, the Rangers had another bad night… | |
| 11.30pm ET04:30 | |
| What are the other late-night hosts doing tonight? | |
| It’s pretty hard for the other late night hosts to compete tonight. Indeed, most have either cried off out of “respect” for Dave or have dedicated huge segments of their shows to him. | |
| Conan O’Brien | |
| Conan when for the latter when he recalled the support Letterman gave him after he took over his slot on NBC in 1993 and was hammered by the critics: | |
| “I got the shit kicked out of me. Critics despised me, the ratings were bad, my skin broke out, and my network started to make it clear that I probably wouldn’t be around very long. I honestly have no ill will about that time because, by and large, people were right. I was in way over my head - and with this hair, that’s saying something - and the conventional wisdom was that I should be immediately cancelled.” | |
| He added that at his personal low point Letterman offered support: | |
| “At one of the lowest points of my life, when I was a 30 year old national punchline, Dave, for reasons I still don’t really understand ---- completely rescued me. I truly believe that simple act of kindness turned everything around and made all the difference.” | |
| Jimmy Kimmel | |
| Jimmy Kimmel went for the former, deciding against recording a new show and instead going for a rerun. He told the Hollywood Reporter: | |
| “I have too much respect for Dave to do anything that would distract viewers from watching his final show. Plus, I’ll probably be crying all day, which makes it hard to work.” | |
| Sounds like the worst excuse not to turn up to work ever. | |
| Jimmy Fallon | |
| Fallon isn’t having any of that nonsense. He’s got a full slate of guests including David Duchovny and, er, Pitbull AKA Mr Worldwide. It’s definitely the b-side but, gives me the opportunity to remind everyone about this brilliant sketch by Limmy that tackles the genuinely baffling ubiquity of Pitbull: | |
| Jon Stewart | |
| The US’s premier political satirist isn’t taking the night off either. He’s got Kristen Wiig in the hotseat, which if her appearance at the Grammys is anything to go by might be worth flicking over to every now and then. | |
| Right, on with the show. | |
| 11.20pm ET04:20 | |
| The many sides of Dave | |
| The last 24 hours have seen most outlets sum up Letterman’s tenure in the form of lists. We joined in the hoards who wrote pieces about his musical influence. Maura Johnston ran through some of his best musical guests, including the Beastie Boys’ performance in 2004: | |
| “The iconic New York hip-hop trio first appeared on Letterman’s show in 1992, and their raunchy reputation back then inspired Dave to pronounce during his monologue that he didn’t “want no trouble, OK?” (Apparently a few years prior, despite not appearing on the show, their presence in 30 Rockefeller Center had included their “terrorizing Sue Simmons”, then anchor of the local news show Live at Five.) Twelve years later, all grown up, they showed the Late Show audience how even though they were older and wiser they still owned the five boroughs’ streets; their performance of the 2004 track Ch-Check It Out opened in a subway entrance and wound its way to the Ed Sullivan Theater, with Letterman greeting them like old friends once they eventually made their way to his desk.” | |
| Other versions of Dave that people spoke/wrote about included Sad Dave, with Alan Sepinwall giving his saddest moments of Letterman’s reign: | |
| The Hollywood Reporter’s tv critic Tim Goodman (AKA Bastard Machine) also gave his slightly emotional thoughts about Dave’s departure: | |
| “I’ve watched these Letterman farewell episodes and done plenty of tearing up in the process. And I’ve marveled not only at his legacy and endurance and influence (all the obvious things we talk about when someone like Letterman retires), but also simply how much people really do love him and will miss him. | |
| If you’ve lived long enough and watched enough television you’ve seen plenty of farewells. If there’s anything notable about the departure of a true ground breaker, it’s the legitimate appreciation on hand. You can’t fake some of the tears and the looks these celebrity guests and friends have given him. With the whole late night talk show circuit built on phoniness – which Letterman spent a career tearing down – it’s especially gratifying to see real, unfettered appreciation and respect.” | |
| Emotional stuff. But the “unfettered appreciation and respect” isn’t quite universal. Gawker reminded everyone about Creepy Dave with a supercut of all the awkward things he’s said to female guests. He does go on about legs an awful lot. | |
| Ebony took the time to remind everyone about the eight “blackest Letterman” moments, which included his 2005 pow wow with Oprah, his awkward talk with Janet Jackson and his sit down with Barack Obama. | |
| So there we have it: there was a David Letterman for just about everyone. | |
| 11.13pm ET04:13 | |
| The long goodbye | |
| Letterman first announced he was going to quit more than a year ago and since then Stephen Colbert has been unveiled as his replacement, and there have been lots of other movements in the late-night world. Craig Ferguson left his position as host of the Late Late Show, where he was replaced by James Corden. Jon Stewart said he was stepping down from the Daily Show in August, when he will be replaced by South African comic Trevor Noah. Elsewhere, the two Jimmys (Fallon and Kimmel) continue to dominate on either coast, while Conan is still the late-night outsider on TBS. | |
| Letterman’s departure, however is by far the most significant due to his influence on not only CBS’s late-night output, but all of the current breed of late-night hosts. Of course, he wasn’t always the biggest deal in late night (arguably he isn’t at the moment as Fallon has much better ratings), and his bête noire was Jay Leno – another possible guest tonight, although no one has seen him so far. | |
| The two vied for Johnny Carson’s slot on NBC’s the Tonight Show – Leno prevailed after a protracted battle – and Letterman took a role at CBS after being courted by most of the networks. Bill Carter followed the story and wrote The Late Shift, which was eventually turned into a show on HBO. He wrote for us last week: | |
| “Starting as the puckish, peckish, insistently amusing kid brother; he became the commanding comedy perfectionist, before evolving into a cranky curmudgeon over the past decade or so: an on-camera version of the irascible neighbor spraying the garden hose to keep the kids off his lawn. Letterman has lived out a career – and life – in an electronic display window, one that faced directly into American bedrooms. | |
| A man of complex temperament, daringly forthright on camera, insecure and reclusive off, Letterman has been a show business original since his first day as talkshow host – on an NBC daytime program in 1980 – the leader of a new generation of American comics, intent on parodying the entertainment world even as they lived in it, and off it.” | |
| So this is the end of an era, not only for Letterman but for his brand of late night host. Fallon and co have flourished by creating content that works online rather than only on television after 11 o’clock. Before the torch is passed a load of celebs came out to show their love for Dave and wrote funny little jokes on cue cards and then posed for pictures with them. | |
| Here are a few: | |
| John Travolta | |
| Will Ferrell | |
| Bruce Willis (with a wig) | |
| Scarlett Johansson | |
| Oprah (who had a long-running feud with Letterman because of this) | |
| George Clooney | |
| Clooney’s message gives me a great way to segue into my favourite ever Letterman moment: Weezer playing Say It Aint So in 1995. They’ve never bettered that original line up. Ever. | |
| 10.50pm ET03:50 | 10.50pm ET03:50 |
| What can we expect? | What can we expect? |
| So what will the next couple of hours hold? Well, because the show is recorded earlier in the day we’ve actually got a pretty good idea of who is going to turn up. Plenty of people were camped outside the Ed Sullivan Theatre to spot guests and celebrities, and here is the list of everyone who was seen making their way in or out: | So what will the next couple of hours hold? Well, because the show is recorded earlier in the day we’ve actually got a pretty good idea of who is going to turn up. Plenty of people were camped outside the Ed Sullivan Theatre to spot guests and celebrities, and here is the list of everyone who was seen making their way in or out: |
| Steve Martin | Steve Martin |
| Chris Rock | Chris Rock |
| Jerry Seinfeld | Jerry Seinfeld |
| Tina Fey | Tina Fey |
| Barbara Walters | Barbara Walters |
| Jim Carrey | Jim Carrey |
| Julia Louis-Dreyfus | Julia Louis-Dreyfus |
| Peyton Manning | Peyton Manning |
| Alec Baldwin | Alec Baldwin |
| Bill Murray | Bill Murray |
| They add up to ten former Letterman guests and pals who are rumoured to be taking part in a final “Top ten list” where the celebs state the “final thing they would like to say to David Letterman”. Kudos to Bill Murray for turning up two nights in a row. There are more spoilers over at Variety but we don’t want to ruin the fun. | They add up to ten former Letterman guests and pals who are rumoured to be taking part in a final “Top ten list” where the celebs state the “final thing they would like to say to David Letterman”. Kudos to Bill Murray for turning up two nights in a row. There are more spoilers over at Variety but we don’t want to ruin the fun. |
| Also spotted going in to the Ed Sullivan Theatre for Letterman in last 20 mins: Jerry Seinfeld, Tina Fey and Barbara Walters. | Also spotted going in to the Ed Sullivan Theatre for Letterman in last 20 mins: Jerry Seinfeld, Tina Fey and Barbara Walters. |
| Other things we know about include the Foo Fighters being the final ever musical guests (more on that subject shortly), plus recorded messages from Barack Obama and all his living predecessors (again, more on politics and Dave in a bit). | Other things we know about include the Foo Fighters being the final ever musical guests (more on that subject shortly), plus recorded messages from Barack Obama and all his living predecessors (again, more on politics and Dave in a bit). |
| It should be a non-stop celebration of all things Dave, which with that amount of star power, shouldn’t disappoint. | It should be a non-stop celebration of all things Dave, which with that amount of star power, shouldn’t disappoint. |
| 10.31pm ET03:31 | 10.31pm ET03:31 |
| The beginning of the end | The beginning of the end |
| Lanre Bakare | Lanre Bakare |
| Welcome to the live blog for the final ever Late Show with David Letterman. The build up has been all-consuming, the stars have come out in force and just about everyone in America has said how much they’re going to miss good old Dave, so let the emotional outpouring commence! Here’s some needlessly sentimental Jackson Browne to put you in the mood. | Welcome to the live blog for the final ever Late Show with David Letterman. The build up has been all-consuming, the stars have come out in force and just about everyone in America has said how much they’re going to miss good old Dave, so let the emotional outpouring commence! Here’s some needlessly sentimental Jackson Browne to put you in the mood. |
| CBS released footage of Letterman’s final ever entrance to the set of the Late Show earlier today complete with Paul Shaffer’s fairly bonkers keyboard accompaniment: | CBS released footage of Letterman’s final ever entrance to the set of the Late Show earlier today complete with Paul Shaffer’s fairly bonkers keyboard accompaniment: |
| Speaking of videos, we also had a summary of his late night career on the site. Here it is, ICYMI: | Speaking of videos, we also had a summary of his late night career on the site. Here it is, ICYMI: |