Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS(NEW YORK) — In an interview about his decision to retire from late-night TV, David Letterman tells Rolling Stone that aside from spending more time with his family, one of the impetuses that led him to pack it in was the viral content made nearly nightly by his competition, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon.
Calling his failure to do so “a weakness of the show,” the 68-year-old Letterman admitted to the magazine in its brand new issue. “I hear about things going viral and I think, ‘How do you do that?’ I think I’m the blockage in the plumbing.”
The chat show host called life-long Letterman fanboy Jimmy Kimmel “friendly” and “very sweet,” and described Fallon’s Tonight Show as “bright and colorful” and “a commercial for itself.”
Kimmel is such a fan, in fact, that he announced that he won’t air a new installment of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! on the night of May 20, when Letterman airs his final show.
In the Rolling Stone interview, Letterman doesn’t shy away from some of the more controversial aspects of his life and career, talking about his alcoholism, his relationship with Jay Leno, and his affairs with female staffers. He called the 2009 revelation — and on-screen admission — of the trysts, “easily the lowest point in my life…like I’d dug a bottomless pit, and I was falling into it.”
Letterman’s wife Regina stayed with him, and he admits their son Harry has yet to learn about the indiscretions. “He will one day…We’ll have to have a conversation about it. But not yet,” he said.
Dave told the magazine that he phoned Leno when his longtime on-air rival announced his retirement. “I said, ‘Well, I hope this is good for you, and I’m sorry you’re leaving,'” Letterman explained, describing Leno as, “very nice and earnest about it.”
Rolling Stone also revealed that the Late Show is trying to book Leno to appear on one of Dave’s final shows, but nothing was confirmed as of press time.
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