re: Letterman Final Show Thread

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Bill Carter once said on Bill Simmons' podcast that losing that battle for the Tonight Show and then going on to lose the ratings battle the first few years pretty much killed the "old" Letterman, the guy from the 80s and early 90s that everyone in comedy idolized.

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I don't think Letterman cared about the ratings battle. He was openly annoyed by all of that kind of stupid BS in the entertainment industry. That's what made Dave so great: he was the champion of the loners and freaks. He made the uncool smart asses the cool kids. I think losing the Tonight Show wounded him deeply, he had earned it based on quality, but I don't think the second part bothered him at all. Ratings are for the people who crave popularity, and Letterman never was going to be one of the popular kids. His whole identity was based on being the underdog.

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He also mentioned something I never really knew about Letterman that hurt his chances to get the Tonight Show and hurt him at CBS -- he didn't have that great of a work ethic. He never did much lead-in or promotional work for other shows, and he never wanted to do the CBS up-fronts or interact with sponsors. Also, he only tapes 4 days a week, taping Friday's show on that Monday, which meant that the material for the Friday show had to be canned and couldn't be too time-sensitive.

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Case in point. Letterman hated the bullshite. He held celebrity culture in open contempt. That's what made him great. He wasn't going to be your monkey.

He did lose his edge in the last decade, but that was more about being successful than not getting ratings. He got too comfortable and too established, and he knew that CBS had his back. He needed to be the smart arse in the back of the class, not the star pupil. It changed the dynamic of the show.