David Letterman ended his 33-year career as a late-night television host on Wednesday, ushered into retirement by four presidents who declared “our long national nightmare is over” and saying there was nothing he could ever do to repay his audience.
The show ran 17 minutes over the usual hour, much of it because Letterman took the time to thank the people who worked for him. As the tuxedoed Foo Fighters performed Everlong — a song they first played on the Late Show when Letterman returned after heart surgery in 2000 — a long montage of photographs from three decades of television history zipped past on the screen.
“The only thing I have left to do for the last time on a television program [is say] thank you and good night,” he said.
Letterman presided over 6,028 broadcasts on CBS and NBC, the transplanted Hoosier making Top 10 lists and ironic humor staples of television comedy and an influence to a generation of performers.
True to his self-deprecating style, he said Stephen Hawking estimated that tenure delivered “about eight minutes of laughter.”
Letterman is set to be replaced in September by Stephen Colbert, who he endorsed by saying: “I think he’ll do a wonderful job.”
Ten stars from Steve Martin to Tina Fey delivered the final Top 10 list of “things I’ve always wanted to say to Dave.”
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, with Jerry Seinfeld standing nearby, said: “Thanks for letting me take part in another hugely disappointing series finale.”
No. 1 was Bill Murray: “Dave, I’ll never have the money I owe you.”
From his start on NBC’s Late Night in February 1982, Letterman’s comedy was about more than telling jokes. He attached a camera to a monkey’s back, tossed watermelons off a roof and wore a suit of Alka-Seltzer to plunge into a tank of water.
Celebrities used to being fawned over either clicked with his prickly personality or did not, and when Cher called him a more profane version of “jerk,” it became a memorable moment.
He shifted to CBS in 1993, when NBC gave the Tonight show to Jay Leno instead of Letterman, a slight he never forgot or forgave.
His audience welcomed him back after a heart bypass, listened as he became the first late-night host back on the air after the 2001 terrorist attacks and saw him acknowledge inappropriately having sex with a subordinate.
“When I screw up now, and Lord knows I’ll be screwing up, I’ll have to go on somebody else’s show to apologize,” Letterman said.
With his monologue and Top 10 list, the final show kept the same format of thousands before them, although he gave no one the pressure of being a guest on the final show.
Letterman, before saying goodbye, thanked virtually everyone involved with the show from CBS Corp chairman Leslie Moonves to his researchers and crew members.
“It’s so obvious every night and again tonight that they were so much better at their jobs than I am at my job,” he said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the