Letterman: I'll Quit Late Show in...

The good doctor asks about late night wars and gets an earful

(NEWSER) - Leave it to Dr. Phil to get David Letterman to really open up about Jay Leno. The TV doc asked the Late Show host about the latest round of late night wars, and Letterman took it all the way back to 1975, when he and Leno first met. “He’s so engaging, so compelling, you can’t not love him,” Letterman said. “But then there’s also this other side of him, and I think he would own up to it, he’s just a complete boob. He can’t help himself.” More»

David Letterman still wins, but he's in a class of his own

(NEWSER) - Despite all the publicity heaped upon them in recent weeks, there are more late night hosts than just Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien. After years of following the major late night shows, Michael Giltz decided the time has come to declare a new king. His final verdict? Craig Ferguson, but only if you take David Letterman out of the running. Check out his thoughts, from the Huffington Post :

• David Letterman: “He's already ascended to the pantheon, alongside Johnny Carson, Steve Allen, Jack Paar, Dick Cavett, and just a few others. His legacy is assured, so he doesn't get ranked alongside the others.”
• Craig Ferguson: “He's been charming the pants off us for some 1000 shows now and doing it effortlessly,” and last night’s show—during which he eschewed the audience and simply talked to Stephen Fry for an hour—“was an arresting, wonderful hour akin to the glory days of Dick Cavett.”

O'Brien-NBC deal said to be $45 million; tomorrow's his last Tonight Show

(NEWSER) - NBC and Conan O’Brien reached a pricey divorce early today, but that didn’t slow the Tonight Show host's relentless tirade against the network last night. A constant stream of monologue disses wasn’t enough, so O’Brien unveiled his latest revenge scheme: Waste as much of the network’s money as possible (watch full episode here ). Guest Adam Sandler then offered up his own story of being fired by NBC (watch in the gallery, along with other clips including Jay Leno bashing David Letterman’s married life and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's two cents). Updates on the Conan deal: More»

As Tonight Show saga continues, Leno and O'Brien face off

(NEWSER) - As the late-night shakedown gets messier, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien seem to be turning against each other—and David Letterman is clearly on Team Conan. The Late Show host wants O’Brien to appear on his show “not to rub NBC's noses into their huge mistake, but to welcome Conan with open arms and show him that despite the way his old network has treated him, America loves him,” a source tells PopEater . More: More»

But not just because of sexual politics: It's time to hire female writers

(NEWSER) - Nell Scovell walked away from her dream job on Late Night with David Letterman thanks to the "hostile work environment" created by high-level male staffers having sex with their female employees. She writes about her experience in Vanity Fair—not to name names, but to point out the underlying problem with all the major late night shows: "Out of the 50 or so comedy writers working on these programs, exactly zero are women. It would be funny if it weren’t true." More»