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The day Letterman said ‘no’ to Rupert Murdoch
US talk show host retires after 33 years – but would he have had the same long and illustrious career if he’d said ‘yes’ to Rupert Murdoch?
David Letterman, who on Thursday finished an extraordinary 33-year run as a late-night host on US television, will long be remembered for his gap-toothed grin and rapid-fire wit by the fans who revered him.
But to me he’ll always be the man who got away from Rupert Murdoch.
I became a Letterman fan 30 years ago in the mid-1980s when I moved to Los Angeles for work. Johnny Carson was the king of American talk show TV at the time but, as good as Carson was, for me he was just a warm-up act: Letterman came on at 12.30am when Carson was done and my wife and I rarely missed a minute of his nightly show.
Not since Graham Kennedy at his irreverent best had I seen anyone or anything like him. Letterman pushed boundaries, capable of going in unexpected directions – and to hell with the consequences.
I became such a fan of his that at my very first meeting with Murdoch …