AJW

CNN said Dave made the announcement this afternoon at the end of today's taping.

MvRojo

Thank god. ABC would probably cancel the show after a year, like they do with all their good shows.

Matt

AJW

Confirmed on the Hollywood Reporter Site

Letterman inks new deal, stays with CBS
March 11, 2002

It's official: David Letterman is staying at CBS. After a very public courtship with ABC, sources said Letterman has inked a new multiyear deal to stay at CBS and will announce his decision on tonight's episode of "The Late Show With David Letterman." (Cynthia Littleton )



http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hol...ent_id=1396258

btlives

Lets be kind to the programmers over at ABC.

ABC...First moves a good series around 5 or 6 times
then they cancel it. Excuse is a lack of solid ratings.

Anyways...Wonder what Nightlines future will be.....

Fielding Mellish

"Mr. Mahr, it's your agent on line 2.

Will you take the call?

Please come out from under your desk, Mr. Mahr. Please?"

Bust

As much as I could care less about Nightline, this makes me happy because now Jon Stewart will be staying at The Daily Show where he belongs.

dolphinboy

You're probably right, but ABC usually makes the absolute worst decisions possible, so you never know.

The "public" (really, mostly media whining about its own self-importance) outcry over Nightline being sh*t-canned for a late night talk-show was a huge factor in all of this.

ABC people, if you believe what you read, wanted Nightline gone before they even approached Letterman. But the whole Ted Koppel freak out and the media bemoaning how such a show would ever be replaced (I mean how dare they take off the 65th news program of the day-including cable news, for a much more profitable nighttime ENTERTAINMENT show).

But it sure looks like ABC would look very bad now after losing
Letterman (he probably wouldn't have left CBS anyway, but the whole Nightline controvesy made it impossible for him to even really consider going to ABC) and then getting rid of Nightline too.

BUT...it's ABC. Also they might, behind the scenes, try and work on a deal to "let Nightline go" rather than cancel it. Many networks, including CNN have said they would take Nightline in a heartbeat, so maybe Koppel, feeling spurned, would quietly make a deal (with permission from ABC) for the show to move somewhere else.

This would allow ABC to not look to bad, while allowing them to go after Jon Stewart for a talk-show of his own on ABC. Stewart is the best there is after Letterman (IMHO) and as much as I also love him on the Daily show, it's only a matter of time before someone offers him the big bucks to take his brand of comedy and create a talk show.

Honestly, I think with all the primtime numbers helping Leno and with Letterman still considered the best in the business, I think Stewart would get clobbered for quite some time. But if a network has patience (so ABC would seem out of the running right there), I think he could be up there in a few years. I mean, NBC wanted to fire Conan and now most people agree he's better than Leno. Wow, that was meant to be a complimentary remark about Conan, but who isn't better than Leno?

After Stewart leaves CC, I think he'd be best trying to create or develop something with FOX. But if they do lose Nightline, ABC will grab him up very quickly.

To this day, I can't figure out how Letterman chose Kilborn over Stewart. I have to go to bed and get to work, but I think a Letterman/Stewart combo would have kept me awake at night and asleep at work.

huzefa

Why not let Koppel open up his own show on CNN at 10:00 right after Larry King Live? Then Jon Stewart could move to ABC and get a wider audience. He would kick ass in that slot.

Bust

NOOO!

Stewart must STAY at The Daily Show!!!
Why would we want him to be restricted by network BS?!?

mee2

Bah! Letterman and Leno are passe', they're old news. Give me and my Gen-X brethren Jon Steward any day. If ABC were smart they should start courting Jon....right...about...now!

Jackskeleton

Sounds cool. ABC needs to figure out a better solution for the lacking profits