Author Topic: David Letterman Sowed the Seeds of Late-Night Television's Demise  (Read 30 times)

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Offline SVPete

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David Letterman Sowed the Seeds of Late-Night Television's Demise

https://pjmedia.com/stephen-kruiser/2026/05/21/david-letterman-sowed-the-seeds-of-late-night-televisions-demise-n4953122

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... Because American leftists are clinically insane, fans of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert like to blame President Trump for the host's walking papers. Some of them throw in a dash of garment-rending about CBS and corporate evil, but usually circle back to a Trump tantrum. As I have said on many occasions, President Trump isn't just living rent-free in their heads, he's building condos there.

What those on the left aren't talking about is the program's bloated production costs and the fact that Colbert made a conscious decision to tell half of the country to go you-know-what ourselves. Well, nobody on the left had been discussing the latter. Earlier this week, Variety — Hollywood's news organization of record — had a dimly lit lightbulb moment:
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Throughout most of Letterman's tenure on television, his trademark was doing goofy things that just weren't seen on talk shows at any time of day. Even when he was being a little bit acerbic, he kept it weird enough so that he didn't seem cranky or bitter. ...

Near the end of his run on The Late Show, Letterman wandered more and more into partisan grumpy old man stuff. Nobody on our side of the aisle ever thought he was conservative, but he also wasn't making it a point to offend us. That changed in the last couple of years before he left late-night television. He began giving the implied finger to half of his potential audience. Conservatives on social media were a combination of disappointed and angry because so many of us had been fans of his work up until then.

I can't help but believe that Letterman's embrace of leftist partisan vitriol emboldened Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel when they made the choice to be emotional political advocates rather than humorous talk show hosts. Kimmel's weepy breakdown after President Trump was elected again in 2024 remains perhaps the most pathetic spectacle in the history of late-night TV.

Letterman was BDS-driven.
If The Vaccine is deadly as anti-Covid-vaxxers claim, millions now living would have died.

US Life Expectancy chart illustrating this, https://www.macrotrends.net/datasets/global-metrics/countries/usa/united-states/life-expectancy

Offline RonE

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And, going way back, I remember Letterman admitting that he didn't know shit about politics.
BTW, Colbert said the same. But now they're authorities.

Offline SVPete

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The "D" of "_DS" may or may not be over-used, but it definitely is not hyperbole or exaggeration. Bush broke those who thought him an idiot and prepared the way for the even more hysterical TDS.
If The Vaccine is deadly as anti-Covid-vaxxers claim, millions now living would have died.

US Life Expectancy chart illustrating this, https://www.macrotrends.net/datasets/global-metrics/countries/usa/united-states/life-expectancy