David Letterman has renewed his contract with CBS through 2015. As I hear it, he didn't know what else to do with his life at this stage and CBS didn't know who else to put in his place. Everyone's kind of waiting to see where the "late night wars" will stand after Fallon replaces Leno, Arsenio settles in to some ongoing level, and we see if Jay will remain a player in this arena somewhere. We are not yet to the contractual point where Leno could entertain serious offers to go to another network or into syndication and the rumor from "sources" close to him is that he's playing it close to the vest — not saying he wants to go elsewhere, not saying he doesn't — until he sees what kind of interest he gets and where the numbers stand at that point.
I'm sorry to say I don't watch Dave much anymore…sorry because there was a time he did my favorite show in all of television. He just seems to me now like a man who doesn't want to be there but since he has nowhere else to go, he'll drop by and do the same show he does every night, avoiding something new for something he can do with minimal effort. I did watch the episode last week with Bill Clinton and while that combo of host and guest made for some sparkling, interesting shows in the past, this time it was a dull thud. Clinton got bogged down in policy minutiae, as he often does, and Dave didn't seem engaged enough to leap in and guide his guest to more interesting topics. When he's good, Letterman is awfully good…but when I tune in lately, he isn't.
My late night viewing is down to almost nothing. I TiVo Leno and Ferguson regularly but unless one of them has a great guest on, I rarely stick with them much past their monologues. I TiVo Fallon and Letterman when they do have someone on I want to see. (This page is a handy way to know who's on what and when.) I've given up on Arsenio, Kimmel and Conan.
Actually, I keep forgetting Conan even has a show but when I have watched it, I've enjoyed it more than I enjoyed his Tonight Show. He's calmed down now, doing a show where he doesn't feel he personally has to get a laugh every three seconds. A comedy writer friend of mine says that the secret of Mr. Leno's success is that he hasn't succumbed to a disease that hits most people who are on television for a long time and aren't Johnny Carson. It's a condition in which you believe with each passing year that your show ought to be more and more about you and less and less about anyone or anything else. I call it The Bob Barker Syndrome.