David Letterman Reflects on 33 Years in Late-Night Television

Fantastic, candid interview with Letterman by Dave Itzkoff for the NYT:

Q: Did you have any involvement in choosing Stephen Colbert as your successor?

A: No. Not my show. When we sign off, we’re out of business with CBS. I always thought Jon Stewart would have been a good choice. And then Stephen. And then I thought, well, maybe this will be a good opportunity to put a black person on, and it would be a good opportunity to put a woman on. Because there are certainly a lot of very funny women that have television shows everywhere. So that would have made sense to me as well.

Q: But you were not consulted?

A: [shakes head no] Mm-mmm.

Q: Did that bother you?

A: Yeah, I guess so. Just as a courtesy, maybe somebody would say: “You know, we’re kicking around some names. Do you have any thoughts here?” But it doesn’t bother me now. At the time, I had made the decision [to leave] and I thought, O.K., this is what comes when you make this decision.

Stewart was always my pick, too.

★ Wednesday, 29 April 2015