Happy birthday to (The) Late Show!
Today marks 31 years since the CBS franchise first burst onto the late-night scene. On August 30, 1993, Paul Newman helped christen Late Show With David Letterman on its very first night.
During the premiere episode—in the middle of a bit where Letterman attempted to contact the spirit of Ed Sullivan—the Cool Hand Luke star stood up from the audience and memorably asked, “Where the hell are the singing cats?”
When Letterman, who had just spent more than a decade hosting Late Night with David Letterman for NBC, responded that this was his new CBS show and not a production of Cats, Newman decided, “I must be in the wrong theater.” The Oscar-winning actor then simply walked out of the Ed Sullivan Theater as the crowd cheered and hollered.
Late Show with David Letterman ran for nearly 22 years, with Letterman’s final episode airing on May 20, 2015 (the host had announced his planned retirement in 2014). Stephen Colbert, the show’s current host (and alumnus of The Colbert Report and The Daily Show), took over just a few months later. The first episode of the freshly titled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert aired on September 8, 2015.
Rather than rely on guest hosts during the transitional period between Letterman and Colbert’s tenures, the network bucked tradition. They put the series on hiatus until the incoming host took his place behind the desk and opted to air reruns of scripted dramas with the branding CBS Summer Showcase.
Of course, the Late Show franchise wasn’t CBS’ first attempt at late-night programming. The network previously hosted The Merv Griffin Show from 1969 to 1972, as well as the short-lived Pat Sajak Show from 1989 to 1990, but found little success in replicating viewership numbers on par with NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
In 1995, Letterman hand-picked Tom Snyder to host The Late Late Show at 12:35 a.m. (The chance to create a new program to run after his own was part of the deal that saw Letterman change networks.) Snyder departed the show in 1999 and was succeeded by Craig Kilborn (1999–2004), Craig Ferguson (2005–2014), and James Corden (2015–2023). In January, After Midnight took over the time slot previously occupied by The Late Late Show.
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