David Letterman, 78, tore into the network he called home for 22 years.
The “mentality that drove the integrity of CBS News has been trampled on, p---ed on and eviscerated by these idiots that have taken it over,” Letterman said new video posted Friday.
“I’m at a point now where it’s really hurting my feelings,” the former host of CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman said.
Letterman joined The Barbara Gaines Show, a YouTube talk show hosted by Letterman’s longtime producers Barbara Gaines and Mary Barclay, to share his thoughts.
“CBS News is a wreck. It’s just gone,” Letterman asserted during a conversation with two of his longtime producers.
Letterman was referring to the massive changes that have been underway at CBS News since the network’s parent company Paramount merged with billionaire scion David Ellison’s Skydance Media last year.
Ellison quickly installed The Free Press founder Bari Weiss as CBS News’ new editor-in-chief. Late last month, Weiss made an 11th-hour decision to pull a 60 Minutes story that was critical of President Trump.
This week, she has begun to remake CBS Evening News by promoting Tony Dokoupil, 45, to anchor that nightly broadcast. Dokoupil began his tenure by inserting MAGA-friendly language into messages to viewers.
Letterman joined CBS in 1993, earning more than 50 Emmy nominations over 22 years as the network’s Late Show host before handing the show over to Stephen Colbert in 2015.
Later in the video, he noted that television is “running out of places” for talk show hosts who use political satire, such as Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and Stephen Colbert.
“What people don’t understand is that Jimmy Kimmel single-handedly brought the people at Disney, and all of those other network television owners, to their knees,” Letterman said. “He made them appear to be the fools that they are and continues to call attention to the plight.”
When Colbert, who Letterman described as a “precise, quick, witty political satirist,” was announced to be leaving CBS, the comedian did not shy away from sharing his objections.
“They did not handle Stephen Colbert, the face of their network, the way they should’ve,” Letterman declared at the time.
In July 2025, CBS’s parent company, Paramount, settled a $16 million lawsuit with President Trump over a misleading edit in its 60 Minutes segment featuring then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Just weeks after the settlement was announced, CBS announced the vocal White House critic’s premature departure in May 2026. Letterman described the announcement as “pure cowardice.”
“One day, if not today, the people at CBS who have manipulated and handled this are going ot be embarrassed, because this is gutless,” he continued. “I only wish this could’ve happened to me,” the retired talk show host joked. “This would’ve been great for me.”
