David Letterman rallies around Stephen Colbert before final show: “You can take a man’s show, you can’t take a man’s voice”
David Letterman has rallied around Stephen Colbert before his final night of hosting The Late Show, telling him, “You can take a man’s show, you can’t take a man’s voice”.
The talk show veteran and former host of The Late Show was appearing as one of Colbert’s guests on May 14th, making up his final week ahead of signing off from the show on May 21st.
As part of this, the two hosts got to chatting about their respective impacts on the late-night landscape, with Letterman jokingly taking the credit for much of Colbert’s success in the role.
Despite this, it was only natural that a dig towards CBS would arrive at some point, with Letterman jibing: “Boy, you know what happened backstage? I’m standing backstage, a guy comes over, said he’s from CBS, and then he fired me.”
Of course, this was a thinly-veiled insult towards the network, who have attracted much criticism for axing The Late Show and firing Colbert, ending the talk show’s almost 33-year run.
When the news was announced last year, CBS insisted the move was made as a purely “financial decision”. However, speculation has swirled that it could be more to do with the network’s legal settlement with Donald Trump, and its planned merger with Paramount and Skydance.
However, Letterman brushed over that matter while appearing on Colbert’s show, subsequently turning his attention to say “I’m pissed off, I have every right to be pissed off,” as he joked that the current Late Show host wouldn’t be in his job and the grand surroundings of the Ed O’Sullivan Theater in New York if he hadn’t come first.
Ultimately, on a more sincere note, Letterman added: “As we all understand, you can take a man’s show, you can’t take a man’s voice – so that’s the good news indeed,” to loud cheers from the audience, echoing the sentiment.
Although Colbert has always stopped short of confirming the reason for The Late Show being taken off the air, he said in an interview with GQ in November that it was “reasonable to think” it was “politically motivated”.
As the final night of the show draws nearer, the rest of the late-night landscape is pulling out all the stops to show a mark of respect for him, with Jimmy Kimmel announcing that he would not air a new episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC, against Colbert’s final night on May 21st.
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