Letterman Eases Back Into It
CBS's goofy and much-missed late-night host, David Letterman, has officially made his comeback. Monday night, a healthy-looking Letterman stepped back into the late-night arena, thanking the public for their support after a five-week hiatus following quintuple bypass surgery.
His guests on the CBS Late Show were Jerry Seinfeld, Robin Williams, and Regis Philbin.
Seinfeld walked onstage during Letterman's monologue.
"What are you doing here?" Seinfeld deadpanned. "I thought you were dead."
Replied Letterman, "I'm on CBS. I ain't dead. Why don't you go on home to your wife?"
But, even in the midst of the comedy, there was an moment of emotion for Letterman, 52. After inviting his six doctors and two nurses from New York-Presbyterian Hospital on stage, he briefly fought back tears.
"It was five weeks ago today that the men and women right here saved my life," he said.
TV columnist Gail Shister of The Phildelphia Inquirer told Early Show Co-Anchor Jane Clayson this it is too early to tell if the Letterman show will benefit in the late-night ratings war. But Shister said she thinks his heart surgery will help broaden the base of his following.
"People who weren't big fans of his before are going to be able to relate to him on a more human level," she explained. "Here's a guy who has had his chest broken open with a chain saw, and I think there will be a lot of curiosity tuned in for a while to see how he's feeling, how he's doing."
She also joked that Letterman could enter the race for U.S. president as an independent and get a lot of votes.
In fact, Shister said, CBS launched an aggressive campaign to keep Letterman on the radar screen during his five-week recuperation, a strategy that she praised as "very, very smart."
"I asked the publicist if she wanted to move in with me," quipped the columnist, adding, "There were very few days that went by that I, along with most TV columnists, did not get a call from a CBS publicist hyping some aspect of the show."
The comedian will be pacing his return at first. Bill Cosby and Kathie Lee Gifford already have served as guest hosts, the first time Letterman has let someone else take over.
"It was an agonizing decision for him," said Shister. "He's a guy who likes to have 100 percent control of the product."