Could Letterman's "Nite Show" Appearance Be A Call To Action?

On Saturday, the Bangor, Maine-based talk show The Nite Show with Danny Cashman aired an appearance by David Letterman that was filmed a few weeks ago. Letterman was on hand mostly to celebrate the show’s impressively long run, which is coming to an end as Cashman leaves to spend more time with his family. Praising the self-made host, Dave called The Nite Show “the last local late night talk show in existence in this country…You have represented something here that we’re now saying goodbye to in our culture, and I don’t feel good about that.” He also added, a bit grimly, “we’re not going to see the likes of this on the horizon anytime soon.”

But Letterman’s comments – and, indeed, Cashman’s exit – come at an interesting time. In June, Taylor Tomlinson is stepping away from her show After Midnight, after only two seasons following Stephen Colbert. CBS is declining to replace the show; evidence seems to indicate that that hour will return to the affiliates. There couldn’t be a better time for new Danny Cashmans to rise up all over these United States and take back the airwaves.

The question, of course, is why bother with this ancient medium when there’s YouTube, TikTok, and podcasting? As Letterman himself admitted, “There’s a million people in their basements, doing shows that go around the world.”

The Nite Show conversation offered one answer. When Dave acknowledged that the show’s staff was comprised mostly of students and faculty from a local college’s communications program, Cashman pointed out that graduates had gone on to “bigger” jobs in media, like filming Super Bowls. Dave quoted his wife as telling him “Dave, you helped employ people… and gave them jobs, and now they have careers.” Only a handful of social media stars, filming “in their basements”, can make such a claim.

Moreover, while their podcasts might go around the world, how often does it go next door or down the street? While most of us around the country had never heard of The Nite Show, it clearly meant a lot to the auditorium full of Bangor residents watching the final taping, most of which were unaware of the particularly famous guest. Similarly, there’s no denying how important The Late Show was, and is, to New York. When they took over the long-abandoned, run-down Ed Sullivan Theatre, they revived a neighborhood, so much so that a grateful city never hesitated to block traffic or waive zoning laws for Dave’s shenanigans. Local businesses rarely seemed upset to be the butt of the joke, at least once they saw the cameras.

Local television creates a sense of community – which, to be fair, you can also do on social media, but when will you have to deal with those people in real life? Local late night shows, filmed in little auditoriums, storefront theatres, or even bars, could provide a casual platform for local artists and performers in a way that the 6:00 news doesn’t usually have time for, as well as a gathering place for audience members. As for the creators, the collaborative nature of an old-fashioned TV production, as opposed to a video shot, performed and edited by one person, reduces the pressure on each individual involved while (hopefully) producing better content.

So maybe Dave’s conversation on The Nite Show, and Danny Cashman’s impressive example, should serve as a call to action to aspiring comics and “personalities”, or even to the local CBS affiliates scrambling to fill the hour between 12:30 and 1:30. I would love to someday take a cross country road trip and watch a different late night show at every stop.