Audience members attending the final regular episode of Maine’s long-running The Nite Show with Danny Cashman—the last local late-night show in the U.S.—got quite the shock Wednesday night when host Dan Cashman introduced his special guest: David Letterman.
It was a dream come true for lifelong Letterman fan Cashman, who is set to end his 20+ year-run as host of The Nite Show next month. Speaking with LateNighter just hours after the whirlwind taping, Cashman shared how he managed to finally land Letterman after putting out multiple asks over the years.
“He’s been the dream guest since day one,” Cashman explains. “It always seemed a little bit out of reach—or a lot out of reach, depending on the day.”
“I always sort of thought that if I didn’t ask him, he wouldn’t have a chance to say no. And if he didn’t say no, then the dream was still alive,” Cashman says. But a pair of local news anchors he knows convinced him to reach out. After two declines from Letterman’s camp over the years, Cashman decided to try one more time once he knew The Nite Show would be coming to an end this year.
“Lo and behold, things started to move in the right direction about two months ago,” he explains. “It had to stay a secret until we did it, and that was the most difficult secret I’ve ever had to keep.”
All in all, only about ten people were told ahead of time that Letterman would be appearing at Wednesday night’s taping. Aside from most of his crew and Cashman’s bandleader Brian Nadeau, Cashman was forced to let his parents in on the secret when they tried contacting him at the exact moment he got the call that Letterman was a go.
“ I didn’t answer their phone calls, and they thought I was dead,” he recounts. “So the only way I could get them to speak to me again was I had to tell them who I was talking to.”
All anyone knew in advance was that a “mystery guest” would be on the show. Guessing ensued. (Speculation included Bangor native Stephen King, Maine-native NBA draft NBA draft pick Cooper Flagg, and Bill Belichick, whose girlfriend hails from the state.)
So how does a host handle the moment that his dream guest steps onto his set? Cashman, who studied talk show greats Letterman and Johnny Carson, recalled that Letterman had played it cool when Carson visited Late Night.
”I thought, ‘This is my Johnny Carson/David Letterman moment. I can either do this well or I can fanboy too much,” Cashman explains. “ I wasn’t really worried about an opening question. I was more just wanting to kind of experience what every other talk show host has experienced with David Letterman as a guest.”
“As he walked out, there was a moment where I started losing strength in my legs, in my knees,” Cashman admits. “I had to sort of crouch and bend down a little bit, take a deep breath, and stand back up. Because it was a dream happening before my very eyes.”
Cashman also followed Letterman’s usual wishes when he hosts or guess on a show, going out of his way to make sure that he didn’t encounter his idol before the moment Letterman walked out for the interview.
Despite the weight of the moment, Cashman says he managed to “put [his] game face on” and create some entertaining television.
“I really wanted to talk to him because this is our second-to-last show. I’m struggling with this in a very personal way, and I know that he struggled with it [when he left Late Show],” Cashman says. “I had some really, I guess, selfish questions about what that process was like when he wrapped things up, and how he either got through it, or moved past it, or deals with it.
“And, he really did open up,” says Cashman. “He said some things I’ve never heard him say before. And we also talked a little bit about it off-camera. It’s made wrapping up our show a little bit more easy to take.”
Letterman isn’t the only special guest appearing on The Nite Show‘s final stretch of episodes. Cashman has also taped new episodes with two of his favorite past guests that will air leading up to his episode with Letterman.
His April 26th episode will feature John Davidson, who was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Davidson even guest-hosted for Carson 87 times. Musical guest Vices, INC. will also perform.
And on May 3, Cashman will be joined by another influence, Double Dare host Marc Summers.
“My Mount Rushmore of people that that made me want to get into television were Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Marc Summers,” Cashman told us. “The fact that the two living members of that group were in the same room is beyond meaningful to me.”
David Letterman’s episode of The Nite Show airs Saturday, May 10, making Letterman the final interview guest of Cashman’s late-night run. Cashman says the episode will be an extended one, airing a full hour instead of his show’s usual 30 minutes.
The Nite Show’s farewell festivities will continue with an interview special that turns the tables on Cashman, The End of The Road for The Nite Show, airing May 11 and May 15. The Nite Show’s series finale—a Carson-esque highlight episode—will air on May 17. For those in the Bangor and Portland areas of Maine, tune-in information can be found on The Nite Show’s website.
For the rest of us, clips from The Nite Show with Danny Cashman can be viewed on the show’s YouTube channel.
“There’s no better way to script the end of the show than to have [Letterman] on it,” Cashman says. “The timing feels more right than it ever has to close it up the way that we’re doing it.”
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