David Letterman Doesn’t Miss Late Night — and He’s Not Looking Back
On Jimmy Kimmel Live, David Letterman said the late-night game has turned into a slog — and that he’s relieved to have left it behind.
David Letterman popped up on Jimmy Kimmel Live and, in classic Dave fashion, said what a lot of late-night people are probably thinking but won’t say out loud: the nightly political grind is a mess, and he’s relieved he’s not the one doing it anymore.
Letterman’s read on late night right now
At 78, Letterman is far enough removed from the nightly desk wars to be blunt. He and Kimmel traded compliments, with Letterman praising Kimmel for how aggressively he goes after Donald Trump. Dave even ribbed him as the de facto leader of the resistance, which Kimmel swatted away with a self-deprecating shrug. Letterman joked that hitching himself to Kimmel might make him look better in hindsight, then got serious about where he draws the line between politics and comedy: it isn’t about party labels, it’s about power being fair game.
"If the leader of the free world is a fool, the leader of the free world should expect and examine every bit of ridicule he receives."
He framed it as a basic rule of democracy: whoever sits in that chair is open season for jokes, and lately, Trump makes that way too easy. That doesn’t mean Letterman wants the job back. Quite the opposite. He called the current late-night climate a mess and said he’s grateful he retired when he did.
Who he credited for carrying the load
Letterman isn’t shy about who he thinks is doing the heavy lifting. He shouted out Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and SNL for taking on the nightly political slog and, in his words, basically defending democracy in a moment he sees as pretty beat up.
- He praised Kimmel’s Trump-focused monologues and teased him as the resistance’s frontman (Kimmel pushed back on that label).
- He said the right to mock leaders is non-negotiable, regardless of party or ideology.
- He’s glad he isn’t in the nightly trenches anymore, and thinks the current crop is handling it about as well as anyone can.
- He also gave SNL a nod alongside the network hosts, which tells you how he views the broader comedy ecosystem right now.
The Disney dig
On a lighter note, Letterman congratulated Kimmel on his new contract extension with ABC, then needled him for giving the Disney brass heartburn for another year. Classic Dave: equal parts attaboy and jab.
The bottom line
This was Letterman doing what he does best from a safe distance: calling the room, praising the players, and reminding everyone that skewering whoever sits in the big chair is not only allowed, it’s the job. And he’s perfectly happy letting the current roster take those swings every night.