During Thursday afternoon’s taping of The Late Show, David Letterman announced that he would be retiring in 2015, as reported by Variety.
After hosting for 21 years and over 4,000 episodes, David Letterman has decided to retire from The Late Show in 2015. Letterman began his Late Show stint at CBS in 1993, after hosting NBC’s Late Night for quite some time. According to sources, Letterman alerted CBS executives of his decision to retire hours before the taping took place on Thursday.
By continuing the show through 2015, Letterman will top his longtime rival, Jay Leno in number of seasons. Throughout the highly publicized rivalry, Leno regularly enjoyed higher ratings than Letterman, but a CBS executive notes: “There is only one David Letterman.”
The news of Letterman’s retirement came from musician Mike Mills via Twitter on Thursday afternoon. Mills appears on Thursday’s show and was present during the taping of Letterman’s announcement.
Following the announcement, Letterman received a standing ovation from the audience. Currently, there has been no word of who will replace Letterman and take over his longstanding legacy on the CBS late night show. Names like Jon Stewart and Conan O’Brien have already surfaced with both their contracts for their current talk shows expiring in 2015.