Like others who have been in the same
situation, Stephen Colbert has a choice of either bowing out of late night gracefully or taking the low road of anger and ingratitude.
A show last week in which
guest David Letterman gave a big f-you to CBS on Colbert’s “Late Show” indicates that Colbert has chosen the latter as he heads toward his final show this Thursday.
To be clear, Colbert didn’t deliver the epithet aimed at the network, which paid Letterman and him millions. Letterman delivered it. But Colbert was obviously
delighted at the remark.
It came at the end of Letterman’s appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” last Thursday
night.
Letterman was the show’s sole guest, and he stayed around for three segments. The final segment had Letterman, 79, and Colbert, 62, overseeing the destruction of
furniture from the “Late Show” set.
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Inspired by bits that Letterman used to perform when he was host of the show from 1993 to 2015, two guest chairs and
Colbert’s desk chair were dropped from the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater building toward a large CBS logo placed on the sidewalk.
Stagehands dropped
the heavy guest chairs and Letterman and Colbert teamed up to drop the desk chair. In the process, the CBS logo was destroyed.
The two comedians then hurled
a series of watermelons to the sidewalk, something Letterman used to do on his old show to watch them explode on the sidewalk and street below,
The rooftop tossing bit was the end of Letterman’s guest shot, which concluded with Letterman and Colbert,
still on the roof, saying good-bye.
Turning to Colbert, Letterman adopted a serious tone when he said, “Thank you for everything you’ve done for
our country.”
Evidently, David Letterman thinks a late-night clown ought to be thanked in the same way that many Americans have formed the habit of
thanking uniformed military men and women for their service in the serious business of protecting our country.
“The feeling is mutual, Dave. Thank
you,” replied Colbert. “Anything you’d like to say to the audience before we go?” Colbert asked.
“Not necessarily to the
audience, but to the folks at CBS,” answered Letterman. “In the words of the great Ed Murrow, good night and good luck, mother f---ers!”
The monetary figure
offered most often in an online search for estimates of Letterman’s wealth is $400 million, much of which came from what he was paid when he was on CBS. Accurate or not, you get the picture.
Online estimates of Colbert’s annual earnings range from $15 million annually to $20 million. He hosted the show for 11 years.
I understand that money isn’t everything. I also understand that Dave’s “mother f---ckers” epithet was aimed at the current powers-that-be who run Paramount
Skydance. When he was at CBS, he worked under a completely different management.
In fact, last Thursday’s “Late Show” began with a cold
open in which CBS News under the leadership of internet firebrand Bari Weiss was brutally and hilariously attacked.
Dave’s “Ed Murrow” comment may have been
a direct reference to the tumult at CBS News under its current corporate ownership.
But it is just as likely that
he meant the whole company -- not only because of the news division, but because the company terminated “The Late Show,” which Letterman and CBS launched.
CBS and Letterman were partners in the show, which ran for almost 30 years. And now, Dave calls the company “mother f---ckers.” The man is 79, and he’s still doing
this?
As for Colbert, will his final shows this week be characterized by f-word attacks or sentimental and funny farewells to guests and personnel who have
been important to the show?
Johnny Carson exited gracefully. So did Jay Leno (the second time he was pressured to leave). They were two of the biggest stars
NBC ever had, and they were both forced out -- perhaps gently, perhaps not.
But that’s showbiz.