“This brings true joy to my heart.” Ours, too, Dave. Ours, too.
With his final visit to CBS’s The Late Show—the late-night program he founded in 1993, and turned over to Stephen Colbert in 2015—David Letterman got to indulge in one of the things he does best: dropping things from high places just to watch them crash to the pavement in interesting ways.
Letterman’s experiments in the name of “physics” began on NBC’s Late Night, where he would let fly fluorescent light bulbs, watermelons, cans of paint, bottles of Champagne, disco balls and the like from atop a five-story tower. He occasionally reprised the stunt on his Late Show, dropping the items at times from a seventh-floor window of the Ed Sullivan Theater.
But as part of his Thursday-night Late Show appearance (taped the day before), Letterman and Colbert added commentary to the destruction by aiming the assorted items at a large CBS “eye” logo positioned on the sidewalk below and filled with colorful ball pit balls.
“I thought this occasion would be sad, but this brings true joy to my heart,” Letterman said as they arrived at the rooftop. “We are up here for the wanton destruction of CBS property.”
Letterman set the stage for the first pair of items to take the plunge by “hiring” several Late Show staffers to remove the guest chairs from the Late Show stage mid-interview, after establishing they were the property of CBS/Paramount Skydance. (“Be a shame if something were to happen to them…,” he said.)
After they completed their interview from a pair of seats in the audience, the rooftop segment began. The first guest chair to get flung missed the CBS target eight stories below, but the crew recalibrated for the second drop and successfully smashed the “eye.”
Colbert’s Eames desk chair was next, followed by a bevy of watermelons—always a crowd-pleaser.
Colbert then produced a special something “sent over” by the network, a three-tier cake commemorating The Late Show‘s 1993-2026 run. You can watch its glorious splat in the clip below (slow-motion replay included).
The bit closed with Colbert thanking Letterman for creating The Late Show, and Dave in turn thanking Colbert for “everything you’ve done for our country.”
Prompted for any parting words, Letterman said, “To the folks at CBS, in the words of the great Ed Murrow, ‘Good night and good luck, motherf*ckers.'”
Colbert’s Late Show finale airs next Thursday, May 21, ending his own 11-year run as host—and the CBS franchise itself.
— LateNighter (@latenightercom) May 15, 2026
