David Letterman is one of the most recognizable names in late night television, even as the ten-year anniversary of his retirement from CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman approaches in the 2025 TV schedule. Retiring from the CBS gig (which then went to Stephen Colbert) didn’t mean retiring overall, and he has hosted My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with celebrities like Kim Kardashian (which resulted in big numbers for the show) on Netflix since 2018. Now, with his new project going live, he reflected on criticism of his interview skills from back in the day.
Letterman of course hosted two major network nightly shows over the course of the career that made him into the longest-serving late night host in television, with NBC’s Late Night with David Letterman from 1982-1993 and then CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman from 1993-2015. Speaking with GQ toward the end of the 2024 TV schedule about his new Letterman TV FAST Channel on Samsung TV Plus, he said this in response to a question about being criticized early in his career for not being the best interviewer:
Probably. Yeah, I think that’s true. Any criticism that has befallen me? I’m sure I had it coming. Here’s the issue with me. When I got to California, and I don’t know if this contradicts everything I’ve said here before, but when I got to California, it was like: Okay, I’m here. Let’s get ready to go. I thought, I’m the guy we’ve all been waiting for, and operated like that for a little bit. And the first time I realized it was a mistake, I had a morning show on NBC. It was on for a day and a half, and then it blew up the network. And that’s when I realized, well, you know that thing about me being the guy? Maybe that needs to be, like, take another look at that.
Letterman went on to say that criticism of his interview skills affected his “presence on television” and he realized that “maybe I need to have a broader lens of this pursuit.” Whatever criticism he received, there’s no denying the success of his career between NBC and CBS, although it was during his NBC days that he experienced the worst day of his TV career.
Some celebrities who appeared on his various shows have also spoken about less than stellar experiences, with SNL alum Maya Rudolph feeling humiliated when he said her name wrong and Anna Kendrick stating that “everyone is afraid of Letterman.” For his part, though, Jay Leno clarified years ago that he was a “huge fan” of Letterman despite their purported feud when Letterman was on CBS and Leno was on NBC.
Considering the length of his network TV career which has since led to his Netflix show, the late night legend weighed in to GQ on whether he feels like he improved over time:
I don’t know. I mean, one hopes. God, 30 years plus one hopes you get a little better. I do say that, for the last handful of years, my favorite part of the show was just talking to people. Because doing comedy each and every night, each and every night, each and every night, that’s meaningful and not just laughable, that’s tough. That’s really tough. And I was always lucky to have men and women who were really smart and really good writers. I just, I’d be in the next room. But the thing that I enjoyed mostly was actually just talking to people.
My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, with five seasons available streaming now with a Netflix subscription, certainly enables him to continue just talking to people… with those people being some of the biggest names in pop and world culture, including Barack Obama, Robert Downey Jr., and Miley Cyrus, to name just a few. It remains to be seen if there will be a Season 6, but Letterman went on the record with his opinion that “Retirement is nonsense.”
As for his latest project, the Samsung TV Plus streaming service (available for free on Samsung devices) launched Letterman TV, which streams content from the comedian 24/7. The content includes Late Show with David Letterman, curated moments, and commentary from Letterman himself as he looks back on some of his particularly iconic interviews. Check out how he and Paul Schaffer explained the FAST Channel in the video below:
Letterman TV is available now for fans with Samsung devices. According to Walter Kim, the executive producer for Letterman’s Worldwide Pants, Inc. production company, there are “more than 4000 hours from which to choose” with continuous changes. If you’re not a Samsung fan, you can always check out My Next Guest Needs No Introduction on Netflix. The most recent season includes interviews with Miley Cyrus and Charles Barkley.