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Letterman on late-night TV’s future: ‘I would be surprised if it lasts more than a year’

by Judy Kurtz - 05/05/26 10:35 AM ET

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by Judy Kurtz - 05/05/26 10:35 AM ET

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Things aren’t looking good for much of the late-night TV landscape, according to David Letterman, who says he’d be “surprised” if some programs last “more than a year or so.”

Letterman, who launched “The Late Show” in 1993 and served as its host until 2015, opened up about its forthcoming finale in an interview with The New York Times published Tuesday.

In a surprise move last year, CBS announced that it would be ending the Stephen Colbert-hosted show in May, calling it at the time “purely a financial decision.”

The move to pull the plug on Colbert, a frequent critic of President Trump, came amid a multibillion-dollar effort by Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, to merge with entertainment giant Skydance. The merger was ultimately approved by Trump’s Federal Communications Commission.

Asked if he believed that CBS canceled “The Late Show” due to financial reasons, Letterman replied that Colbert “was dumped because the people selling the network to Skydance said, ‘Oh no, there’s not going to be any trouble with that guy. We’re going to take care of the show. We’re just going to throw that into the deal. When will the ink on the check dry?'”

“I’m just going to go on record as saying: They’re lying,” Letterman, 79, told the Times.

“They’re lying weasels,” he added.

A CBS spokesperson told the newspaper that wrapping Colbert’s show was “unequivocally a financial decision.”

Letterman said he was in “disbelief” when he first learned of CBS ending “The Late Show’s” run.

“Then it seemed like a botched holdup,” the former host said.

“They don’t share the books with me,” Letterman said of CBS.

“All of television seems to have been nicked by digital communication and streaming platforms and on and on. TV may be not the money machine it once was,” he said.

“On the other hand, what about the humanity for Stephen and the humanity of people who love him and the humanity for people who still enjoyed that 11:30 respite?”

Letterman also weighed in on the future of late-night TV.

“We still have Jimmy,” Letterman said in an apparent reference to ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel.

“We still have Seth [Meyers]. It’s not completely dead on arrival, but I would be surprised if it lasts more than a year or so. But it’s such an easy soothing format that it’s got to stay on,” he said.

Trump has repeatedly ripped Kimmel and Meyers — who regularly skewer the president on their respective network TV shows — calling for both of the late-night comedians to be fired.

Pressed about his late-night prediction and potentially not lasting another year, Letterman said, “Well, maybe specific shows.”

“I don’t think it’ll ever go away because it’s just the best,” he said. “It’s humans talking to humans.”

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