David Letterman
April 12, 1947 — Indianapolis, Indiana
David Michael Letterman hosted late-night television talk shows for 33 years — longer than any host in the history of broadcast television. With a deadpan wit, a restless intellect, and a capacity for surprise that kept viewers tuning in for decades, he invented much of the grammar of the modern late-night format and influenced the entire generation of hosts who followed him.
Indianapolis Beginnings
Born on April 12, 1947 in Indianapolis, Indiana, Letterman attended Ball State University, where he worked at the campus radio station. After graduating in 1969, he worked as a weatherman and local TV announcer in Indianapolis — deliberately delivering intentionally wrong weather forecasts and introducing tropical cyclones to Indiana — before moving to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s to try his hand at stand-up comedy and television writing.
Johnny Carson's team noticed him, and Letterman began appearing as a guest on The Tonight Show in 1978, where Carson singled him out as a rising talent. NBC gave Letterman his own morning show in 1980. It was cancelled after a month and a half. That experience taught him everything about what not to do.
Late Night and the CBS Years
NBC's Late Night with David Letterman launched in February 1982 and immediately distinguished itself from The Tonight Show with a deliberately weird, post-modern sensibility: Stupid Pet Tricks, Stupid Human Tricks, the Top Ten List, and segments that broke the fourth wall of television convention. The show drew a cult following and helped define 1980s comedy. His idiom influenced everyone from Conan O'Brien to Tina Fey.
When Carson retired in 1992, Letterman was passed over for The Tonight Show in favour of Jay Leno — a decision that remains one of television's great controversies. Letterman moved to CBS, where Late Show with David Letterman ran from 1993 until his retirement in May 2015. He hosted 6,028 episodes in total across both networks.
Did You Know?
After his heart bypass surgery in 2000, Letterman returned to the air and opened with a standing ovation from the studio audience — then personally thanked each of the ten cardiac care team members who saved his life by bringing them onstage. It was among the most moving moments in late-night history, and unusually sincere for a host known for irony.
Legacy and Later Life
Since retiring in 2015, Letterman has grown a now-legendary beard, continued his passion for auto racing through his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team, and hosted the Netflix interview series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, which brought him Barack Obama, Malala Yousafzai, and Howard Stern among others. He was awarded the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2017. A generation of comedians cites him as their single greatest influence.