Ah, we're nearing the end of David Letterman's long and amazing tenure on The Late Show. This article says what I've been hearing from folks closer to the situation: That Dave intends to wind down his time there without a lot of hoopla. A friend at CBS told me that the network would have liked the final weeks to be loaded with Big Stars, regardless of how close those people were to Dave and his show, but Dave is going to book his favorite guests and that while some may be Big Stars, that's not the criteria.
No word on if or when Jay Leno might be in the guest chair. A person I'll just describe as a decent source says that he assumes Dave desires some closure and healing with that feud so that's why Jay might be on. A reason he might not be on is that Jay is very busy since he left The Tonight Show with a new cable series and dozens of stand-up appearances and guest shots lined up. Dave, my friend says, might not like the contrast as he has nothing planned and can't seem to find anything that he wants to do now.
A lot of folks seem to be under the impression that Johnny Carson made a decision that once he retired, he would never appear on TV again except for the few brief cameos that he did. That wasn't it. When Johnny left his late night job, he had every intention of doing something else. He just didn't know what it would be…and never found anything that didn't feel like a giant step down. Johnny had been in the position to observe many one-time Superstars whose main source of fame atrophied and who were reduced to doing anything just to get in front of a camera.
He didn't want to be one of those people but he also didn't want to spend the rest of his life playing tennis. I sure get the feeling that's the problem for Dave: What do you do? Do you start all over at the bottom with some other kind of show? Do you risk devaluing your rep by doing something that might be a disaster? Personally, I'd love to see Letterman do a one-on-one interview show with the kind of guests he really likes…but I have no idea where that might go on what schedule.
In other news: Have I mentioned that I canceled my TiVo Season Pass for James Corden's show? As with Jimmy Fallon, I like the guy but I don't find his program interesting. I'll tune in when I see a guest I like but there doesn't seem to be one in the next week or two. I really want to have a late night program I look forward to and at the moment, the only one is The Daily Show…and that may or may not remain one with the next host. I'm counting on you, Stephen.