Thursday, March 28, 2024

David Letterman Announces Retirement: Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert Vy for Spot

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Wow! David Letterman has announced his retirement, planned for 2015. He’ll talk about it on his show tonight. Letterman certainly wasn’t thinking about retirement at all. But with Jimmy Fallon’s huge debut against him the Tonight show, it was only a matter of time.

There was no indication of this back on January 31st, when Howard Stern did an in depth interview with Dave at his birthday party at the Hammerstein Ballroom.

I did tell you a while ago that CBS would move in this direction. The big question is who will be Dave’s successor? Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert? They are each signed to CBS contractually even though their shows are on Comedy Central.

read what I wrote on April 3, 2013– one year ago today– http://www.showbiz411.com/2013/04/03/late-night-wars-letterman-contract-also-ends-in-2014-jon-stewart-looms

This will get interesting. Colbert was launched from Stewart’s show. Stewart, of course, would be the next in line for the job. But Colbert is more like Letterman than Stewart, who has been brilliant doing political humor and mixing it up with serious material.

Would CBS pass over Stewart for Colbert? Would Stewart stay with the Daily Show? And how much pressure did Dave get to leave?

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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