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Who’s Relevant Here?
 | | A couple of months ago, I left a request with the security people at the Ed Sullivan Theater for a photo opportunity with David Letterman. When I followed up on February 27 (just two days before the news of his possible defection from CBS broke), Letterman's publicist claimed to have no idea what I was talking about. Nonetheless, it was easy to get this shot of him on the TV in the CBS gift shop. |
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By David R. Zukerman, NYC & Winsted
Here is a slogan for a bumper sticker, suggested by the uproar about David Letterman possibly switching to the ABC television network and replacing Nightline, now in its 22nd year as the ABC late-hour adult program: "I AM TOO OLD FOR TV ADVERTISERS, BUT I VOTE."
Ted Koppel, the Nightline moderator (who had become a part-timer even before the current controversy) has apparently been offended by criticism that Nightline is no longer relevant. But articles since the story broke in the New York Times on March 1 have made it pretty clear that television powers regard viewers over age 50 as irrelevant, too. I didn't find any defense of his viewers in Mr. Koppel's New York Times op-ed article on March 5. He strongly defended himself, certainly, in asserting: "… it is, at best, inappropriate and, at worst, malicious to describe what my colleagues are doing as lacking relevance."
I sent Mr. Koppel a note suggesting that perhaps a better word in place of "malicious" would be "thoughtless"—or even, perhaps, "careless." But if he is right and it was malicious of an anonymous corporate source to dismiss Nightline as irrelevant, how about the implications for those us who are too old for advertisers—and still too young for Social Security?
 | | Letterman smiles at passers-by from his perch on the corner of Broadway and 53rd Street. |
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Boy, did Ted Koppel miss his chance to link up with the voting class! What puzzles me is that no politician has seized on the opportunity that television movers-and-shakers provided in dismissing a very large segment of the American people (and one that is growing larger every day, as baby-boomers edge closer and closer to retirement).
As the controversy raged about whether ABC would replace Koppel, I thought David Letterman—whose ego is apparently at least four stories high (see photo)—might be persuaded to stay at CBS if the network renamed his program The David Letterman Show. (Presently it is Late Show with David Letterman.) Also, banners of Mr. Letterman (like the life-size poster in the CBS store at the corner of Broadway and 53rd Street) might be put up on light poles in front of the Ed Sullivan Theater, where the program is produced. I thought that perhaps a block or two of Broadway might even be renamed Letterman Lane. And, lastly, there was the matter of the name of the theater where the show originates.
Thanks to research by Voice editor Gary Pontelandolfo, I was reminded that the theater was once named for legendary Broadway impresario Billy Rose, and got renamed in 1967 for Ed Sullivan (this being the home of the Ed Sullivan Show—which, by the way, originated in the late 1940s as Toast of the Town). To prepare for Letterman’s arrival in 1993, CBS spent tens of millions of dollars renovating the Ed Sullivan Theater and the architects, Polshek and Partners of New York, got some good notices for their part in the welcoming effort. Now I’m wondering if part of the new contract David Letterman has negotiated with CBS might include the provision that he is next in line for the naming honor.
Even with the 54-year-old Letterman’s decision to stay at CBS, it seems that ABC might still try to come up with a plan to replace its presumably irrelevant Nightline. As for now, to borrow from the closing comment of reporter John Donvan on March 1, as he wrapped up a Nightline story on the plight of the environmentally contaminated town of Pitcher, Oklahoma: will it be Nightline—rest in peace; or Nightline—to be continued?
 | | A reverse image of the Late Show marquis can be seen in the façade of this office building across Broadway from the Ed Sullivan Theater. As part of its negotiations to keep its late night star, has CBS promised to make sure David Letterman's name is visible in all such reflections in the future? |
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|  | | Dave hangs out in the CBS gift shop. |
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