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Letterman

So excited! Can’t wait for this!! Welcome back, Dave!!

David Letterman’s new Netflix talk show will first feature Barack Obama

Veteran former U.S. talk show host David Letterman will return to television on Jan. 12 in a new Netflix show where his first guest will be former U.S. President Barack Obama, Netflix Inc said on Friday.

The company’s shares rose as much as 1.5 per cent to a record of $208.30 US.

Called My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, the six-episode series will also feature interviews with actor George Clooney, rapper Jay-Z, radio shock jock Howard Stern, comedian Tina Fey and Pakistani education activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, the streaming service said.

Netflix has been spending heavily to produce and acquire content as it races to dominate streaming television and beat competition from traditional media and other streaming players, such as Hulu and Amazon.com Inc’s Prime Video.

Letterman’s interview with Obama will mark the former president’s first television talk show appearance since he left office in January 2017.

Letterman, 70, left his job as host of The Late Show in May 2015, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family after more than 30 years on late night television.

His return to television for Netflix was announced in August 2017, when the quick-witted host said that Pope Francis and U.S. President Donald Trump would be top of his wish-list for the series.

Netflix said the new series would consist of 60-minute episodes centred around “one extraordinary figure whom Dave finds fascinating” and that the interviews would take place both inside and outside a studio setting.

The company, home to shows such as House of Cards and Stranger Things, streams to most countries in the world and has a customer base of about 115.6 million. The company’s shares have kept pace with its user growth and have risen nearly 60 per cent in the past one year.

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Letterman

Get well soon, Neil…and this is awesome for Dave!!

David Letterman to Replace Neil Young for Pearl Jam Rock Hall Induction

David Letterman will induct Pearl Jam into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the Brooklyn induction ceremony Friday, with the retired Late Show host filling in for Neil Young.

“Due to illness, Neil Young is regrettably no longer able to induct Pearl Jam at this Year’s Induction Ceremony,” the Rock Hall said in a statement Wednesday. “The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is thrilled that David Letterman has agreed to induct Pearl Jam this Friday night at the 32nd Annual Induction Ceremony.”

Letterman’s Late Show was a favorite late-night venue for Pearl Jam, who performed at the Ed Sullivan Theatre seven times – compared to the zero appearances they made on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show – with Eddie Vedder also performing as a solo artist on Late Show. In 2006, the band played a 10-song set for the Late Show audience.

The band’s first Late Show visit occurred in September 1996 with a run-through of No Code’s “Hail Hail.” “This is a big thrill for me,” Letterman told the band after finally recruiting them to appear on the show.

Letterman joins a Rock Hall induction roster that includes Snoop Dogg (inducting Tupac Shakur), Jackson Browne (Joan Baez), Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson (Yes), Dhani Harrison (ELO) and Train’s Pat Monahan (Journey). Lenny Kravitz will also pay tribute to Prince at Friday’s induction ceremony, while Pharrell will honor lifetime achievement recipient Nile Rodgers.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will air on HBO April 29th at 8 p.m. ET/PT. A special exhibit dedicated to the 2017 class will open at the Rock Hall in Cleveland March 31st.

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Letterman

I miss him on TV already!!

Indianapolis 500 Pays Tribute to David Letterman

In David Letterman’s first weekend as a retiree, the now-former Late Show host slipped into the role of IndyCar team co-owner by appearing at Sunday’s Indianapolis 500. Making the occasion more special was the tribute his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team had waiting for him in the paddock: Driver Oriol Servia’s all-yellow IndyCar emblazoned with a caricature of Letterman and the hashtag #ThanksDave.

Crewmembers also wore shirts with a Top Ten list that praised Letterman, who was born and raised in Indianapolis and was a one-time pit reporter before conquering late night, the Indianapolis Star reports.

“Everything that’s happened, that’s the highlight of my career,” Letterman said during a pre-race interview. “It’s like Andrew Luck wearing ‘Letterman’ across his jersey. You know, it’s crazy.” Letterman has long had a presence at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the venue honored the host with “#ThanksDave” scrolled on the track’s scoring pylons for Sunday’s race.

“It’s Yankee Stadium, isn’t it,” Letterman said of the track. “It’s one of those buildings that’s been here. And if you think about it, it probably shouldn’t have been here. It probably got a lot of breaks. During [World War II], it lay fallow and it was covered with weeds. Against pretty long odds, the place has not only withstood the test of time, but flourished, actually. [The 500] is more than a sporting event. But, boy, when it goes right, it’s a hell of a sporting event.”

Letterman linked up with former Indy 500 champion Bobby Rahal in the Nineties to form their IndyCar team; the two became friends after Letterman interviewed the driver in 1986.

Given the timing of the race – just days after he said goodbye to late night with a star-studded, perfect finale – Letterman remarked that it would “delightful and silly at the same time” if his #32 car won the Indianapolis 500. Unfortunately, the victory went to Juan Pablo Montoya. (Servia finished 29th out of 33 drivers, completing only 112 of the race’s 200 laps.)

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Letterman

It was a brilliant finale!! #ThanksDave

David Letterman’s Late Show finale attracts record audience

Comic celebrities turned out for David Letterman’s late-night farewell — and so did his biggest audience in more than 21 years.

The Nielsen company said Thursday that 13.76 million viewers saw Letterman end his 33-year career as a late-night TV host with a final show Wednesday night. The last time Letterman had so many viewers was in February 1994, when his show aired after CBS’ telecast of the Winter Olympics.

More people watched Letterman than anything else in prime time on Wednesday night. Letterman’s final show started at 11:35 p.m. and lasted more than an hour as CBS let it run long.

Jay Leno’s farewell last February was seen by 14.6 million viewers.

Letterman was 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 taped intro of President Barack Obama and former Presidents George Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush referenced President Gerald Ford’s declaration to the country when he took office following the 1974 resignation of Richard Nixon. Letterman sidled up to Obama to say, “you’re just kidding, right?”

Ten stars from Steve Martin to Tina Fey delivered the final Top Ten 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.”

Number One was Bill Murray: “Dave, I’ll never have the money I owe you.”

Letterman joked in his monologue that he’s been on the air for so long that the hot show when he started was “Keeping Up with the Gabors.”

“You want to know what I’m going to do now that I’m retired?” he said. “By God, I hope to become the new face of Scientology.”

Letterman said goodbye after 6,028 broadcasts of his late-night shows on CBS and NBC. True to his self-deprecating style, he said Stephen Hawking estimated that tenure delivered “about eight minutes of laughter.”

Letterman will be replaced in September by Stephen Colbert, who he endorsed by saying, “I think he’ll do a wonderful job.”

The final Late Show broadcast ran long, some 17 minutes over its usual hour, and CBS planned to let the show air without cutting it. Some Canadian viewers in the Eastern time zone were jarred when at 12:35 ET, with Letterman in the middle of a heartfelt closing message from his desk, the feed on some CTV channels switched to a recorded program for several minutes.

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 didn’t, and when Cher called him “an asshole,” 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.

Letterman even began his final monologue Wednesday by joking, “It’s beginning to look like I’m not going to get the Tonight Show.”

The tricks subsided as Letterman mellowed with age and fatherhood. 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 to 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.

Letterman, whose wife Regina and son Harry were in the audience, was serenaded at the end by the band Foo Fighters. They sang Everlong, the same song they played when he returned following heart surgery in February 2000.

Late night hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon and Conan O’Brien each encouraged viewers to watch Letterman instead or watch their own shows later through DVR technology.

His last few weeks have been warmly nostalgic, with Letterman entertaining old friends like Murray, Tom Hanks, George Clooney and Julia Roberts. Anticipating the end, viewers sent Letterman to the top of the late-night ratings the week before last for the first time since Jimmy Fallon took over at NBC’s Tonight Show and they competed with original telecasts.

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.

Letterman remained dry-eyed throughout the broadcast, but several audience members who filed out of the Ed Sullivan Theater had tears in their eyes.

“He was guarded but you could tell it was really hard for him,” said John Bernstein, who flew in from Los Angeles to attend the final taping. “You could see his emotion. But I think he’s feeling a lot more than he’s showing.”

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Letterman

I would have loved to have been there!!

Inside David Letterman’s Late Show Finale Party: Stars, Foo Fighters, Tears (Not Dave’s) and an Early Wakeup Call!

After the Foo Fighters capped off the final episode of the Late Show With David Letterman on Wednesday with “Everlong,” a tune very near and dear to the outgoing host’s heart, the party continued into the night.

The Late Show staff, Dave Grohl and his bandmates and a bunch of the celebrities who appeared on the show to read the last-ever Top Ten list, including Jim Carrey, Tina Fey and Steve Martin, all trooped over to the nearby Museum of Modern Art to fete Letterman—who looked as if he raided pal Bill Murray’s closet before leaving the Ed Sullivan Theatre.

Of course, the baggy striped pants, yellow Foo Fighters concert T-shirt and leisurely cream blazer probably all belong to Dave—so now we know that streetwear style is just another thing that he and Murray bond over.

A source tells E! News that Letterman only stopped by the MOMA party briefly and, unlike many of the staff members, the 68-year-old TV veteran didn’t look emotional at all. (His farewell speech last night, while incredibly touching and pitch pefect, was notably devoid of tears—not that, knowing Dave, we expected anything different.)

Guests mingled as the Foo Fighters performed and, though Letterman ducked out early, the remaining now-former Late Show staffers took the party to McGee’s Pub (the inspiration for MacLaren’s in How I Met Your Mother) after leaving MOMA.

Meanwhile, crew members were actually due back at the Ed Sullivan Theatre at 8 a.m. today to clean out their offices and dismantle the set.

So…maybe another round at McGee’s tonight is already sounding pretty good.

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Letterman

He will be missed!!

David Letterman’s departure marks end of an era

When David Letterman does his final Top 10 next week it will signal the end of the longest late-night hosting career in U.S. TV network history and the end of an era.

The 68-year-old whose acerbic wit once made him a renegade in the late-night world announced last year that he was hanging up his hat after 22 years behind the Late Show desk.

His retirement, which begins after his last show on May 20, turns the page on a three-decade career.

The late-night TV landscape was a very different place in the 1970s when the gap-toothed comedian got his big break on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

When NBC’s Late Night wth David Letterman debuted in 1982, Letterman earned his reputation as the rebellious kid on the comedy block with his absurdist, cynical and pencil-throwing style of humour.

Sixteen Emmys and 30-odd years later, Letterman’s shtick is showing some wear. When comedic contemporary Jay Leno announced he was throwing in the towel at The Tonight Show after 22 years, Letterman knew it was time to call it quits.

“If you look around at the other people [hosting late night] and look at me, it’s almost like a pair of shoes you haven’t worn in a hundred years,” Letterman told Rolling Stone magazine.

“I still enjoy what I’m doing,” he said. “But I think what I’m doing is not what you want at 11:30 anymore.”

The new kings of late night, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel, have completely reinvented the late-night game, focusing more on creating viral videos than on sit-down interviews or written jokes.

But they owe the success of some of that reinvention to the pioneering Letterman, who originated many of their bits, according to bestselling New York Times writer Bill Carter, who penned two books on the topic: The Late Shift and The War for Late Night.

“Letterman did a lot of this stuff,” Carter said in an interview with CBC. “Jimmy Fallon loves to do games with the guests … Well, Letterman did stuff like that. He had them do elevator races in 30 Rock hallways. He interviewed guests in barber chairs instead of regular chairs.”

Despite being the trailblazer in innovative interviews, Carter said Letterman lost his edge because he simply stopped performing.

“He was outplayed because he stopped playing,” said Carter, who says Letterman didn’t like leaving the studio to record remotes for the show.

Even Letterman himself admits that he’s not up to compete in world of YouTube dominance.

“I hear about things going viral, and I think, ‘How do you do that?'” he told Rolling Stone. “I think I’m the blockage in the plumbing.”

Stephen Colbert, who takes over for Letterman on Sept. 8, will have to simultaneously fill the icon’s shoes and bring new energy to the Late Show.

The 50-year-old, who is best known for Comedy Central’s satirical news show The Colbert Report, will also have to play the YouTube game, while finding his niche in a pretty full playground.

Competing with Colbert and the Jimmys are NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers and CBS’s The Late Late Show with James Corden.

Norm Sousa, who is the host of the only Canadian late-night comedy show Too Much Information, said the viral video phenomenon can’t last.

“We are talking about seven or eight late night shows trying to have two to three viral videos a week,” said Sousa, in an interview with CBC. “If you do the math, I just don’t think it’s sustainable.”

The competition has created what Sousa calls a “late-night renaissance,” but the the comedic battle royale won’t be televised, he said.

“It’ll be interesting to see how it will all pan out,” he said. “[But] I don’t think that late-night comedy will survive on TV.”

Instead, he said, internet streaming services like Neflix and Hulu will inevitably get the last laugh.

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Letterman

Dave is amazing!!

David Letterman to drop by ‘Late Late Show’ hosted by Regis Philbin

David Letterman is playing interviewee for a change. The long-time host of The Late Show will appear as a guest during Regis Philbin’s two-night stint leading The Late Late Show.

Philbin takes over beginning Monday. As for his guests: Martin Short, Susan Sarandon, Alan Alda, and Tony Danza are scheduled to drop by on Monday, Jan. 26, with Letterman, Martha Stewart, and Tracy Wolfson on Tuesday, Jan. 27.

Philbin takes his post during a transitional period for the show. Craig Ferguson left his role as host in December. There’ll be no permanent host until James Corden takes over on March 23.

With his tenure at The Late Show coming to an end on May 20, this might just be one of many more guest appearances from Letterman.

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Letterman

I will miss this next year!!

Letterman pulls curtain on holiday tradition

NEW YORK (AP) — With the curtain soon to fall on David Letterman’s late-night television career, the end comes Friday for an odd and emotional holiday tradition that involves comic Jay Thomas, the Lone Ranger, a giant meatball and, most indelibly, singer Darlene Love.

Love will sing “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” for the 21st and final time on Letterman’s annual holiday show. He’s retiring from the “Late Show” next May.

“I’m looking forward to it this year more than any other year, with mixed feelings, of course,” said Letterman’s longtime bandleader, Paul Shaffer. “It’s been incredibly meaningful for me.”

Letterman’s holiday show has traditions, just not the ones you see in most households. Thomas comes by to repeat the story of giving a ride to Clayton Moore, television’s Lone Ranger. Then, as he’s done since 1998, Thomas tries to knock the meatball off the top of a Christmas tree with a football.

The centerpiece is Love’s performance of the song that identifies her as the “Christmas queen,” primarily because of the annual exposure on Letterman.

“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” was the single off “A Christmas Gift For You,” an album by producer Phil Spector and the artists in his orbit. Now considered a classic, it was a flop upon its release on Nov. 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Shaffer never forgot it, though.

“The Phil Spector album has always been the one that has gotten me through the Christmas season, which can be depressing for people in show business, who are often working instead of being with their families,” he said.

Love hadn’t even performed the song onstage until the mid-1980s, when she was part of “Leader of the Pack,” a tribute show for Ellie Greenwich, writer of “Christmas” (with Jeff Barry and Spector) and other 1960s hits like “Be My Baby.” Shaffer was part of the show. Letterman came to see it one night and was blown away by Love’s version.

Letterman invited Love to sing it on his show in 1986, then on NBC. She hasn’t returned every year, but was there more often than not.

“David is nothing if not a traditionalist,” Shaffer said, “and he kept asking for her year after year. It’s as simple as that.”

Shaffer had his own, private ritual. Every year, the day of the holiday show, he called his good friend Greenwich for spiritual support. That ended with her death in 2009.

The song has been covered multiple times — by the likes of U2, Mariah Carey, Michael Buble and Joey Ramone — since Love began making her Letterman appearances. She moved from California to New York for “Leader of the Pack,” and does a holiday show in theaters each year.

Shaffer and “Late Show” director Jerry Foley, meanwhile, begin preparing for the song’s annual performance weeks in advance. Shaffer always tries to bring different elements — a military choir one year, children in another. In true Spector “Wall of Sound” tradition, Shaffer’s “CBS Orchestra” has greatly expanded to a stage filled with musicians.

Each year’s surprise is the choreographed entrance of the saxophone player for his solo. He’s emerged from a gift-wrapped box delivered by a sleigh-full of showgirls, come down a chimney and flown across the stage hoisted by cables.

Love intentionally keeps herself in the dark about unique elements of each year’s version until arriving at the theater.

“I just show up and sing the song,” she said.

She has a sweet spot in her heart for the first year, when she performed with Shaffer and a small band.

“The first one really sticks out to me as special,” she said, “and there was no glitz or glamour to it.”

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Letterman

So enjoy every show between now and then!!

CBS sets Letterman’s last show for May 20

NEW YORK (AP) — More than 32 years of late-night talk will pass into history next May 20, with CBS’ announcement Wednesday that David Letterman will host his final “Late Show” on that day.

If Letterman makes all of his scheduled broadcasts until then, CBS said he will have hosted 6,028 versions of the “Late Show” and its NBC predecessor, “Late Night.” Letterman moved to CBS in 1993.

“David Letterman has given to all of us a remarkable legacy of achievement and creative brilliance that will never be forgotten,” said Leslie Moonves, CBS Corp. president and CEO. “It’s going to be tough to say goodbye, but I know we will all cherish the shows leading up to Dave’s final broadcast in May.”

Letterman, 67, announced his impending retirement last April. CBS later named Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central as Letterman’s replacement. Colbert hosts the last episode of “The Colbert Report” next week.

CBS has not announced when Colbert will take over the “Late Show.”

Letterman debuted on “Late Night” on NBC on Feb. 1, 1982. He jumped to CBS when NBC named Jay Leno instead of him as Johnny Carson’s successor on the “Tonight” show.

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Letterman

We will miss you Dave!!

‘The Colbert Report’ announces last show date

Stephen Colbert has announced the end date for The Colbert Report, as Colbert is set to take the reins of The Late Show on CBS.

On Thursday night’s show, Colbert announced that the last show of The Colbert Report will be on Thursday, Dec. 18, using the announcement as a ploy to plug the paperback edition of his book, America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren’t.

“Stephen Colbert, the guy you’ve seen here every night for nine years will be gone. All you’ll have left of me is this book,” Colbert said. “So pick up America Again in paperback for a loved one. Or for a hated one. Go to your local independent book store, because I have a longtime war against Amazon and I will never relent. Or—buy it on Amazon, because, you know, just buy it.”

While there is no exact date set for when Colbert will take over The Late Show from David Letterman, the changing of the guard is expected to take place sometime in 2015.