Letterman News Conference-1993

In 1993 David Letterman jumped from NBC to CBS. Flanked by his new bosses, here's part one of Dave's hastily-arranged news conference.

[@redlightmax]

I just finished watching _The Late Shift_, and one of the final scenes was a reenactment of Letterman's press conference - and now I can watch the real thing! Thank you for uploading.

[@DaviMourao]

Same here. Watched the move few days ago and was curious to see 'the real thing'.

[@lancaster72680]

redlightmax Kathy Bates was great in the The Late Shift

[@assmane999]

redlightmax The actors portraying Dave and Jay did an awful job. Not bad actors, just bad casting. The reenactments of their shows were so unrealistic and it seemed like it was put together by people who had no idea what their shows and personalities were actually like.

[@lancaster72680]

assmane999 you are clueless

[@assmane999]

kyle lang Come on, it was slapped together to capitalize off of the public interest in the controversy between, Jay, Dave and NBC.

[@balerjohnson3099]

Best thing Dave ever did was leave NBC ...The biggest mistake NBC ever made was letting him get away .

[@roberts.3098]

He would have been just as good at NBC.

[@sirxavior1583]

Not everyone at NBC was mean to Dave. The blame lies with Helen Kushnick, Warren Littlefield and John Agoglia. Dave Wright and Dick Ebersol chose Letterman over Leno. Wright could have easily overruled Littlefield and Agoglia. The only good thing Wright did was free up Letterman's contract so he could sign with CBS.

[@zt1053]

Leno kicked Lettermans but and Conan eventually got better ratings than Letterman. I don't think nbc had any regrets.

[@TheH7469]

@@zt1053 Well now we get Colbert vs. Fallon and Tonight Show is finally behind Late Show in all ratings. Do you think Letterman is less talented than these two? Also ability to get higher ratings as a host does not always equate to talent. On a talk show for example the guests that the show gets can turn the scales one way or another, or the legacy of the show with long-time fans continuing to watch no matter who the host is, etc. Point being if Letterman had taken over the Tonight Show, I believe he would have beaten a potential Leno Late Show rival. There's a reason that, especially at the time, The Tonight Show was the holy grail of talk shows.

[@zt1053]

@@TheH7469 Higher ratings means higher revenue and that’s all the suits cared about. No regrets

[@mandoleyva9163]

This was big news on 1993. You couldnt understand this if you werent 25 or over at the time.

[@jedijones]

I was a teenager, a Dave fan, and I understood it.

[@mikekillagreen9432]

If Dave had The Tonight Show he would have dominanted for years. He went out on his own with no existing show at 11:30 and still won the 1st 2 years.

[@PIXPromosMore]

Wow......E! was a NEWS Channel once?!

[@sgreen11379]

+PIX Promos & More its e! news now online is what this channel was

[@PIXPromosMore]

sgreen11379 Yeah, but I mean Long-form coverage of something like this...Not 30 second high-speed blurbs nobody cares about.

[@orenthaljames5244]

+PIX Promos & More Yeah, it broke into reruns of Kate & Allie to cover live entertainment news sometimes.

[@RageTVHTX]

More an Entertainment News Channel. They showed movies and had original programming, my favorite show was Talk Soup

[@fstrgray82]

They even had an Entertainment Tonight-style show called E! News Daily. It was a fun channel between that, Talk Soup, and sitcom reruns. No Kardashians or anything like that. It was a fun time.

[@mikes6457]

I can't not see John Michael Higgins as David Letterman.

[@zigzagbigbag]

Dave had a good set off balls. Not taking the bullshit from NBC. The 11:30 slot killed both Dave and Leno. I watched Dave religiously at 12:30 but eventually lost interest with the 11:30 show. The edge was gone and so was I. I didn't go to Leno either because he lost his edge long before Dave. And now the Kimmel's and Fallon's or whoever are just terrible. I've never watched a full show of theirs because they are so very lame.

[@theoldanarchist]

Leno never had any edge.

[@Snelly_2]

Well you definitely should have gone to Conan

[@EdSullivan101]

It was about the money. CBS would pay, NBC would not. Leno was a very good choice for Tonight Show because he didn't have an 'attitude' in his joke telling, like Dave did. Some people like a lot of sarcasm in their comedy, others don't.

[@ronwade2206]

He alone insisted CBS renovate the Ed Sullivan Theater and with a lot of talented guests resuscitated Broadway. Broadway was a mess, Dave cleaned it up by putting it on CBS, CBS won!

[@rudyiraheta80]

had letterman been on abc

[@m.h.1593]

I love Letterman so much

[@mrmrmr5495]

Me too.

[@danieldougan269]

Heh to hear him praise NBC that way...hook him up to a polygraph!

[@JustForSneaksEnt]

Conan O' Brien did the same thing on his final Tonight Show, even though he was shitting on them the week prior for the network screwing him over.

[@HypnoSwag]

David said the EXACT same thing to Conan when he praised Leno's returning crew after his Late Night departure.

[@middleagenerd]

His show suffered when he went to CBS. He lost something.

[@NerdNest83]

Mostly ratings. When he went to CBS, they suffered after they lost their NFL rights to Fox, not to mention a lot of their long time affiliates.

[@jennifermarieherron8089]

Holiday in Cambodia?

[@octaviancaesarhibernicus4447]

I'm not American, i like David Letterman, but a news conference to announce that you're with CBS, I mean wtf,a news conference????

[@abhiu2398]

You need to read The Late Shift.

[@zigzagbigbag]

Octavian Caesar Hourigan I know it seems odd but at the time it didn't.

[@Sarah_Gravydog316]

Money, ratings, ad rates... money money money.

[@fstrgray82]

Many considered Dave the heir apparent to Johnny Carson’s throne, including Carson himself. Leno getting the job instead was pretty controversial. I second reading The Late Shift or watching the movie which is on KZbin. The movie is a very faithful retelling of events.

[@octaviancaesarhibernicus4447]

@@fstrgray82 isn't it a major rule of business that you can't allow someone even as famous as Johnny Carson to pick the successor to the show and I think the NBC brass proven correct overtime I absolutely despise NBC for what they done to Conan O'Brien If he didn't have Jay Lebo as a lead in then I think Conan would have been a success

[@DarthCipient]

Legend

[@chachee15]

cant believe they had a news conference for a talk show host, and that he is holding a cigar on tv.

[@aodox]

chachee15 You should look into the book, the Late Shift. The story behind how he ended up at CBS and the insanity that lead to this .... the press conference will look sane by comparison.

[@gfolkins1]

chachee15 Back at the time all this was going on, there was a TON of media coverage about this. It was everywhere. The news conferences were a way to bring about closure to the whole circus that was the battle that would decide f Dave got the tonight show, giving Jay the boot, or if Dave would be free to go. NBC had their own press conference, and if anyone has a clip, I would love the link to it.

[@Jamesbrowntv]

chachee15 yeah things were very different back then. dave was one of the biggest stars in america at the time.

[@anthonyrodriguez4574]

chachee15 it's on the ENTERTAINMENT CHANNEL

[@highplainsdrafter595]

Quoting a phrase from the movie Stripes: "Lighten up, Francis!"

[@larsc4714]

bling$$$$$))))