David Letterman Says He's Not Ready To Retire Just Yet
"The way I feel now, I would like to go beyond 2010, not much beyond, but you know, enough to go beyond. You always like to be able to excuse yourself on your own terms," the 61-year-old Letterman says in an interview in Rolling Stone magazine about sticking with CBS' 'Late Show'. "If the network is happy with that, great. If they wanna make a change in 2010, you know, I'm fine with that, too." Letterman admits he can't figure why NBC is so eager to move Leno from his late night spot, where he continues to top ratings: "Unless I'm misunderstanding something, I don't know why, after the job Jay has done for them, why they would relinquish that," Letterman says, "I have to believe he was not happy about it." NBC announced in May that Conan O'Brien would be taking over 'The Tonight Show' in June 2009, with Jimmy Fallon moving into O'Brien's 'Late Night' slot. "It will be weird to see Conan at 11:30, don't you think? Which is not to say he can't succeed, but, no, I don't know what the competition will be like. I hope we're able to do OK." Letterman also tells the magazine that his most 'heartbreaking' moment on the show was actually with musician Warren Zevon in the dressing room after the show. Zevon was a guest just months before his 2003 death from cancer. "Here's a guy who had months to live and we're making small talk. And as we're talking, he's taking his guitar strap and hooking it, wrapping it around, then he puts the guitar into the case and he flips the snaps on the case and says, `Here, I want you to have this, take good care of it.' And I just started sobbing." "He was giving me the guitar that he always used on the show. I felt like, `I can't be in this movie, I didn't get my lines.' That was very tough," says Letterman.
Jay Leno may feel like he's being pushed out the door by NBC, but rival David Letterman, whose still has two years on his deal, says he's looking to go even longer.
September 3, 2008 | |
