Late Show | Hosts, Guests, Format, & Facts | Britannica (original) (raw)

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Late Show with David Letterman (1993–2015) and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (2015– )

Late Show, American late-night talk show that began airing on the CBS television network in 1993, with comedian David Letterman as host, and won numerous Emmy Awards for its innovative, frequently off-the-wall approach to the talk-show format. After Letterman stepped down in 2015, Stephen Colbert became the program’s host.

Letterman rose to popularity as the host of Late Night with David Letterman (1982–93), which followed The Tonight Show in the late-night lineup of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). Despite Letterman’s long career with NBC, in 1993 the network chose comedian Jay Leno over Letterman to succeed Johnny Carson as host of The Tonight Show. Letterman subsequently moved to CBS and launched the Late Show with David Letterman on August 30, 1993.

David Letterman and Adm. Mike Mullen, 2011Late Show with David Letterman featured guests from all walks of life. No guest escaped Letterman's off-the-wall, often sardonic humor, and the best guests joined in on the banter.

An hour-long program broadcast weeknights opposite The Tonight Show, the Late Show with David Letterman became a cornerstone of CBS’s programming. It was shot live on tape before a studio audience in the theater in New York City that was the home of The Ed Sullivan Show. Like other late-night talk shows, the program featured interviews with celebrity guests interspersed with comedic segments, skits, and musical performances.

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Each episode of the Late Show with David Letterman typically opened with a humorous monologue by Letterman that was often punctuated by banter with the show’s diminutive bandleader, Paul Shaffer, an accomplished musician who affected a glitzy showbiz persona that typified the show’s winking tongue-in-cheek sensibility. Like Late Night, it had a hip cachet that had much to do with the audience’s being in on the joke, whether it involved the nightly Top Ten list, Letterman’s interaction with one of his quirkier guests (from flamboyant fitness advocate Richard Simmons to caustic comic book author Harvey Pekar), or the bizarre conceptual bits that were a staple of the program. Those frequently involved an ensemble of sidemen drawn from the production staff (e.g., stage manager Biff Henderson) and the theater’s Manhattan neighborhood (delicatessen owner Rupert Jee) or simply recruited off the street. Influenced by the avant-garde approach of television comedy pioneer Ernie Kovacs, Letterman and his team routinely went behind and beyond the stage, calling out of windows with a bullhorn, telephoning office workers in nearby buildings, and mounting cameras on just about anything that moves. “Stupid Pet Tricks,” “Stupid Human Tricks,” “Know Your Cuts of Meat,” and “Is This Anything?” were just a few of the show’s regular segments.

Most of Letterman’s interviews were good-natured and funny. However, he could also be probing or antagonistic, which resulted in long-running feuds with a number of celebrities, including Cher and Madonna. Yet underlying Letterman’s often biting and sardonic humor was a sincerity and genuineness that more than a few observers attributed to his Midwestern roots. The show also was lauded for showcasing both high-profile and up-and-coming recording artists, almost all of whom performed with the show’s skillful house band. After initially topping the late-night talk-show viewer ratings, the Late Show with David Letterman in subsequent years failed to reach as broad an audience as The Tonight Show, but its influence on a generation of viewers and comedians was undeniable.

In 2014 Letterman announced that he was retiring the following year, and Stephen Colbert, then host of the satiric news program The Colbert Report, was named his successor. Amid much fanfare, Letterman hosted his last show on May 20, 2015.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert debuted on September 8, 2015. It was also filmed live in the Ed Sullivan Theater, which had undergone a massive renovation. The program followed a format typical for late-night talk shows, with an opening monologue, skits, and several interviews. It also featured a house band—Stay Human, with its founder Jon Batiste as bandleader; he left the program in 2022. While the majority of his guests were entertainers, Colbert also scheduled numerous politicians and news makers, notably from the tech industry, and many of his interviews were seen as smart and thoughtful. Although ratings were initially low, beginning in 2017, his incisive political satire led to a dramatic increase in the show’s viewership.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by René Ostberg.