science

The Late Show (franchise)

The Late Show (franchise) is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Late Show (franchise) rather than just read about it. In short: The Late Show is an American late-night talk show franchise that aired on CBS. It first aired on August 30, 1993, with host David Letterman, who previously hosted Late Night with David Letterman on NBC from 1982 to 1993.

Key takeaways

The Late Show (franchise) belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Late Show (franchise) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Late Show (franchise) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Late Show is an American late-night talk show franchise that aired on CBS. It first aired on August 30, 1993, with host David Letterman, who previously hosted Late Night with David Letterman on NBC from 1982 to 1993. Letterman's iteration of the program ran until his retirement in May 2015. Comedian Stephen Colbert, best known for his roles on Comedy Central programs The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, assumed hosting duties that September. The show originated from the Ed Sullivan Theater in the Theater District of Manhattan, New York City, and aired live to tape in most American markets at 11:35 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, 10:35 in the Central and Mountain time zones. CBS announced in 2025 that it was canceling The Late Show franchise, with the series finale airing on May 21, 2026, at the conclusion of Colbert's eleventh season.

History

Prior to the Late Show CBS had previously attempted late-night talk shows with The Merv Griffin Show (1969–1972) and The Pat Sajak Show (1989–1990) but neither were able to compete with NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and were cancelled; Griffin's for editorial disputes with the network (he would go on to continue the show in syndication for 14 more years), and Sajak's for low ratings. For most of the 20 years preceding Late Show, CBS's late-night fare consisted of movies, re-runs, imported Canadian dramas and specialty programming packaged under the titles CBS Late Night and Crimetime After Primetime and broadcast to middling ratings, competing against The Tonight Show and, in its last years, the upstart success of a syndicated series, The Arsenio Hall Show, which began airing in January 1989. Before Letterman's arrival, CBS' New York flagship, WCBS-TV, specifically used the Late Show name for its late-night movie programming.

David Letterman (August 30, 1993 – May 20, 2015)

When David Letterman became available after being passed over by NBC for The Tonight Show, CBS was eager to lure him and offered him a three-year, $14 million per year contract, doubling his Late Night salary. According to their agreement, the show would spend a month in Hollywood at least once a year. CBS purchased the Ed Sullivan Theater for four million dollars, spending "several million more" for renovation. The renovation was supervised by architect James Polshek. CBS' total cost for acquiring the show—including renovations, negotiation right paid to NBC, signing Letterman, announcer Bill Wendell, band leader Paul Shaffer, and the rest of the band—was over $140 million. When Letterman moved to CBS and began the Late Show, several of Late Night's long-running comedy bits made the move with him. Letterman renamed a few of his regular bits to avoid legal problems over trademark infringement (NBC cited that what he did on Late Night was "intellectual property" of the network, a contention he disputed). "Viewer Mail" on NBC became the "CBS Mailbag", and Larry "Bud" Melman began to use his real name, Calvert DeForest. Shaffer's "World's Most Dangerous Band" became "The CBS Orchestra", a jab at NBC regarding the show's new home, and a play on the NBC Orchestra of the long running The Tonight Show. Letterman's signature bit, the Top Ten List, was perfunctorily renamed the "Late Show Top Ten List" (over time it reverted to its original name). In ratings, Letterman's Late Show topped Leno's Tonight Show for its first two years. Leno pulled ahead on July 10, 1995, starting with a Hugh Grant interview, after Grant's much-publicized arrest for picking up an LA prostitute. Leno also benefited from the lead-in provided by NBC's popular Must See TV prime time programs of the mid-to-late 1990s. Likewise the CBS network was hurt by affiliation switches in late 1994 relating to Fox picking up CBS's National Football League rights (although CBS would reacquire those rights in 1998), stunting the Late Show just as it was beginning to gain traction. Despite CBS rising back to first place in prime time in the 2000s, Letterman never fully recovered from the damage, and he remained behind Leno and successor Jimmy Fallon for the rest of his tenure, only briefly rising back to first place during Conan O'Brien's run as host of The Tonight Show. Announcer Bill Wendell left in 1995, with Alan Kalter taking his place for the remainder of Letterman's run as host. On April 3, 2014, Letterman announced his retirement. His last telecast aired on May 20, 2015.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Late Show (franchise)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Late Show (franchise) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Late Show (franchise) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Late Show (franchise) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Late Show (franchise)

In research: The Late Show (franchise) appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Late Show (franchise) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Late Show (franchise) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1990s American late-night television series, 1990s American sketch comedy television series, 1990s American variety television series, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Late Show (franchise) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Late Show (franchise) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Late Show (franchise) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Late Show (franchise) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Late Show (franchise) in simple terms?

Why does The Late Show (franchise) matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Late Show (franchise)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Late Show (franchise).