Say goodbye to the smuggest man in late night, because during a taping yesterday, David Letterman confirmed his retirment. His contract with CBS will take him through 2015, ending a career as a talk show host that has spanned 32 years and two programs (Late Night and Late Show).
Via his publicist:
David Letterman, during a taping of tonight’s Late Show, said that he informed Leslie Moonves, President and CEO of CBS Corporation, that he will step down as the host of the show in 2015, which is when his current contract expires.
“The man who owns this network, Leslie Moonves, he and I have had a relationship for years and years and years, and we have had this conversation in the past, and we agreed that we would work together on this circumstance and the timing of this circumstance. And I phoned him just before the program, and I said ‘Leslie, it’s been great, you’ve been great, and the network has been great, but I’m retiring,’” said Letterman.
“I just want to reiterate my thanks for the support from the network, all of the people who have worked here, all of the people in the theater, all the people on the staff, everybody at home, thank you very much. What this means now, is that Paul and I can be married.”
“We don’t have the timetable for this precisely down – I think it will be at least a year or so, but sometime in the not too distant future, 2015 for the love of God, in fact, Paul and I will be wrapping things up,” he added, to a standing ovation from the audience in the Ed Sullivan Theater.
There’s been a definite changing of the guards in the last decade or so when it comes to late night talk shows. Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel have made it impossible to ignore the importance of viral content, and over on TBS Conan O’Brien has the kind of freedom that allows him to do pretty much whatever he wants. Leno is gone and now Letterman is retiring. The biggest question is, what will become of Paul Shaffer, the most useless man in show business?
UPDATE: CBS has released the video of Letterman’s retirement announcement, embedded below.
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