‘The Late Show With David Letterman’ Finale: Live Recap & Highlights

Tonight, David Letterman ends his reign as the longest-running late night talk show host with a grand finale, running 20 minutes longer than usual. Celebrities including Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin and Tina Fey showed up to say goodbye to the beloved host. For 33 years, Letterman has had a home on late night TV on The Late Show With David Letterman, conducting well over 19,000 interviews and reading over 5,000 of his “Top Ten Lists”. To celebrate Letterman’s final show, we’ll be doing a live recap to describe all the craziness, special moments and laughter that are shown tonight. Tune in here, starting at 11:35 p.m. EST.


Let’s start off by revealing tonight’s Top Ten List is this:

“Top 10 things I’ve Always Wanted To Say To Dave:”

10. Alec Baldwin: “Of all the talk shows, yours is the most geographically convenient to my home.”

9. Barbara Walters: “Did you know you wear the same cologne as Muammar Gaddafi?”

8. Steve Martin: “Your extensive plastic surgery was a necessity…and a mistake.”

7. Jerry Seinfeld: “I have no idea what I’ll do when you go off the air. You know, I just thought of something: I’ll be fine.”

6. Jim Carrey: “Honestly Dave, I’ve always found you to be a bit of an over-actor.”

5. Chris Rock: “I’m just glad your show is being given to another white guy.”

4. Julia Louis-Dreyfus: “Thanks for letting me take part in another hugely disappointing series finale.”

3. Peyton Manning: “Dave, you are to comedy what I am to comedy.”

2. Tina Fey: “Thanks for finally proving men can be funny.”

1. Bill Murray: “Dave, I’ll never have the money I owe you.”


To kick things off at the beginnig of the show, several of our former presidents, along with Obama, said that their “long, national nightmare was over” – David Letterman is retiring. And then of course, Letterman had to make his last speedy run across the stage before diving into his opening monologue. It took a little while to silence the crowd, but he finally was able to get started. To begin his speech, Letterman said, “It’s beginning to look a lot like I’m not getting The Tonight Show.” He then joked that upon retiring, he hopes to become the new face of Scientology. He joked there were signs that he should retire in recent years and then he showed a short segment called “Comedy We Would Have Done Tomorrow.” Letterman then joked about his screw-ups over the years, his families, and the people who originally didn’t believe in his show. Letterman also, of course, had to acknowledge Paul Shaffer, the leader of the show’s band.

Later on, Letterman showed an old segment that embraces the concept of “Kids Say The Darndest Things”, followed by the star-studded Top Ten List. Then, Letterman showed highlights of skits from his episodes over the years as well as some funny behind-the-scenes footage of Letterman. Then, the Foo Fighters came on for a musical performance, but before that, Letterman gave his send-off speech. He asked for the viewers to save their praise for his funeral. He also reminisced with band leader Paul Shaffer and talked about how the show has evolved over the years. He also extended thank you’s to the cast and crew as well as his family. Both his wife and son Harry were shown sitting in the audience. Finally, he thanked the viewers before introducing the Foo Fighters. He said that when he had open-heart surgery 15 years ago, he asked for the Foo Fighters to perform a song for him on his return episode. And so, he had them close out his show with the same song – “Everlong.”