Awesome Host Trick: 33 Years of Late Nights with David Letterman
May 21, 2015
Popular American television talk show host David Letterman retired Wednesday night after 33 years and 6,028 broadcasts of his late-night shows on CBS and NBC. Letterman hosted nearly 20,000 guests during that time and his shows received 16 Emmy Awards and 112 Emmy Award nominations.
The final weeks of “The Late Show with David Letterman” were a celebration of the host’s career. Highlights included moving musical performances by Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, a prank in which actor George Clooney handcuffed himself to the host for the duration of the show, and comedian and actor Bill Murray—Letterman’s first guest on both his NBC and CBS shows—jumping out of a giant cake. In recent days, fellow late-night talk show hosts Jon Stewart, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and Seth Meyers all paid tribute to Letterman on their shows or in publications.
Letterman became known for his satirical routines and for the unusual material he injected into his shows, such as “Top Ten” lists and “Stupid Pet Tricks.” Before hosting “The Late Show with David Letterman,” which began in 1994 on CBS, he hosted “Late Night with David Letterman” (1982-1993) on NBC.
David Michael Letterman was born on April 12, 1947, in Indianapolis. He graduated from Ball State University in 1970 with a degree in radio and television broadcasting. He was a radio talk show host and television announcer and weatherman in Indianapolis before turning to stand-up comedy. He began appearing in comedy clubs in Los Angeles in 1975 and soon became a frequent guest star on television comedy shows.
Comedian and talk show host Stephen Colbert is scheduled to take over “The Late Show” in September 2015.
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