CBS is panicking over the state of The Late Show with David Letterman. They should. It has the lowest ratings it's ever had. And its quality is at its nadir as well.
I only see it once or twice a week, usually by accident. If we watch the news on our local CBS affiliate and wander out of the room for ablutions or chores after the weather, often Letterman begins while we're occupied. I'll stop and watch parts of his show as I pass through the living room. It's far from must-see viewing, though.
Dave's always kind of rubbed me the wrong way, I guess because he seems like someone I would not spend two minutes with in a social setting. He seems mean, self-involved, obnoxious - and even disinterested. Whenever he says something like "Of course, we're saddened to hear of it," he always has to add, "Yep, just sick to death I'm telling ya," to make you question his sincerity. Maybe that's a put-on but if it is he's doing a great acting job.
He has some funny gags, a few good regular routines (but some that he runs into the ground for years), and is actually a better interviewer than Jay Leno but his humor has gotten weaker and odder over the years. One especially appalling development has been the recurring skits portraying announcer Allan Kalter as an evil deviant. I'm no prude (by any means) but they are just too twisted and cheaply vulgar and I have no idea how they get past CBS's censors. I could probably deal with them if they were actually funny. But they're not.
What really befuddles me is how Letterman fills the spaces between those moments with things that don't even rise to the level of inane. He'll spend ten minutes out of an hour repeating a word or gesture accompanied by a drum or organ effect. If he tugs at his tie and clears his throat in an extremely exaggerated manner during the opening intro, he'll do that a dozen times over the course of a show as Paul Shaffer laughs his head off. I just don't get it.
That said, I'd probably still take him over Leno for talk or Conan for humor. But not by much.
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