Dan Cashman spent 15 years proving that late night didn’t have to come from New York or Los Angeles.
As the creator and host of Maine’s The Nite Show with Danny Cashman, Cashman built what became the country’s last local late-night show from the ground up—writing jokes, booking guests, selling sponsorships, working with student video crews, and keeping the show alive while also holding down a full-time job and raising a family.
Now, a year after ending the show’s run with a David Letterman-assisted farewell, Cashman has finally added one thing that had long eluded him: an Emmy win.
Make that two.
Cashman broke his career-long streak of 14 nominations and zero wins Saturday night at the 49th Boston/New England Regional Emmy Awards, sweeping both of the categories in which he was nominated: The Nite Show’s David Letterman episode won in the Interview/Discussion category, and Cashman himself took home the Program Host/Moderator/Correspondent award.
That means Cashman’s long-running “Never Won an Emmy!” bit—in which he cheerfully spotlighted fellow Maine TV personalities who, like him, had made it through life without taking home one of the regional statuettes—now officially needs a rewrite.
Accepting the Interview/Discussion award for The Nite Show’s Letterman episode, Cashman traced the show’s origins back well before its 15-year run on Maine television.
“This show was dreamt up in my basement when I was a kid,” Cashman said. “We started it from scratch, so I have to thank my parents for putting up with a kid who would talk to himself in the basement pretending that he was interviewing people.”
Cashman went on to thank the team that helped make the show, including its writers, producers, “amazing kick-ass live band,” and the crew from the New England School of Communications.
Then came the line that could double as the show’s epitaph: “This is proof you don’t have to leave where you live to do cool things.”
Cashman returned to the stage later in the night to accept the host award, and used that speech to single out the guest who helped turn The Nite Show’s final-season sendoff into a national story.
“There are way too many people to thank,” Cashman said, “but I really have to thank David Letterman for taking the time to come to Bangor, Maine to do our little show.”
“This is for him,” Cashman said, before quipping, “He has too many, so I’m gonna keep it.”
Letterman’s surprise trip to Bangor aired in May 2025, bringing national attention to a local late-night show that Cashman had built from scratch and kept alive for 15 years.
As LateNighter reported at the time, Letterman praised Cashman as “a self-made man” and called the show “no small accomplishment.” The appearance was followed by interviews with NPR, Howard Stern, People, and others, giving The Nite Show an unusually high-profile victory lap for a locally produced late-night program.
Now it has something else: an Emmy-winning finale.
