Lots of chatter in the TV media in the last 48 hours over the possible fate of David Letterman now that he's admitted sleeping with a member (or members?) of his staff (as well as an associated extortion attempt) . (like, but not limited to this LA Times story, and this NY Times story)
I don't know anything more than the most general publicly available reports, but I'll predict one thing. He's not going anywhere.
Two reasons:
- Success. Since mid-summer, Dave's been beating Conan's Tonight Show in average viewership and inching closer in the important adult demo groups. Recent nights have him winning in the demo groups as well. That's better than Late Show Night has done vs. The Tonight Show since the 90's. CBS is not going to get rid of a winner.
- Les Moonves. Slept with and later married CBS employee Julie Chen. Seems to be a pot/kettle/black situation which leaves Les little moral standing to call for Dave to go.
This isn't a comment on what Letterman did. just that it won't matter to his future on CBS. I think Dave will still be behind the Late Night desk after all this has blown over.
Agree with you 100%! but there is a 0% chance the media chatter will subside anytime soonish. this is the stuff the media actually LIKES to chatter about. LOVES to chatter about.
As a result though, they will be chattering about Dave’s ratings more than ever. Now instead of “Letterman’s beating Conan!”, if Conan takes the demo back in a week it will be “Has Letterman’s behavior tarnished his appeal!” even if The Late Show is still vastly improved ratings wise versus the Jay days.
To be fair, I don’t think ANY reputable media outlet/media analyst has said Letterman should be fired…
Anon, you are correct, the chatter has been more of the “will he have to leave?” sort, not “Dave must go!”.
was Les Moonves married before Julie Chen?
Anon, I wouldn’t necessarily call them reputable, but I’ve seen a few analysts here and there on CNN and FOX News say CBS needs to fire Dave either to set an example, or just because they saw him as a “trouble magnet” (referring specifically to his pattern of “woman-hating”, or the Sarah Palin incident). But the majority agree, this is nothing unless it comes out that some of them felt pressured. But so far, two have come out of the woodwork as having been more than willing.
tdot, Moonves was married when he began dating Chen.
And not that this matters in Dave’s case, but according to current info I have read, Dave was not.
As far as scandals go, this one is very dull. I can’t see this having legs. So, years ago, Dave had consensual relationships with a few different women while he was dating someone else that he’s been involved with to one extend or another since 1986. So Dave isn’t a shining pillar of virtue. Big deal. How mundane and completely uninteresting.
I agree with Bruce. Sleeping around with (consenting) co-workers might not be the most ethical thing for Letterman to do, but since when is a late night comedian held to some kind of high ethical standard, especially since he wasn’t even married at the time? It’s certainly not the same as a married politican having an affair, so I don’t see Letterman’s behavior as being all that hypocritical.
Surely reason number one, is that he didn’t do anything wrong? Not that we have heard so far. If a woman was a minor or he threatened her with a gun, there would be a case. But what adults do in their spare time isn’t that relevant for his job.
Look, I love the way people say “it’s like John Edwards, he’ll get the zing!” Wrong. Dave was confronted with it, and immediately told the truth to the nationwide audience. Major difference between that and staging a cover up.
He was “dating” someone when he had a brief fling with another named person and potentially another. The one person we know of at this time has come out and said she’s “emberrassed” that it was part of a blackmail, she was not forced or felt pressured, and it was a mutual event and NOT a major secret.
What a lame ass blackmail. Scoop of a story: unmarried man has sex with unmarried woman while carrying on a 20 year off-and-on relationship with another staffer who he married 3 years later.
*yawn* my god, what do people want, to assume he’s celebate?
Since there is every indication that all the parties were adults, unless facts come out to show any incident was non-consentual and/or sexual harassment, Dave will keep his job.
The buzz on this issue will increase his ratings overall. Conan may need to consider a scandal just to compete!
You’re right. I was thinking about that too. If Letterman goes then Moonvese should too (they have since had a baby, too).
Although I think the conclusion is correct regardless of anything else, I don’t think Les Moonves is a good cite. He married Chen and that removes some of the problems that might soon be occurring for Letterman, but probably will not. He also wasn’t (as far as we now) having sex with others that worked with Chen. It was a targeted case of philandering. Letterman’s approach was a lot more shotgun than laser.
Consider:
1. These things rarely come to the attention of someone uninvolved in the day-to-day affairs of the show (no pun intended) unless someone who is involved and knew about what was occurring is unhappy.
2. Anyone else who is unhappy, but didn’t know what was occurring, can now possibly cite what was occurring as a source of their unhappiness.
I think it’s possible that one or more of the women could sue Letterman for sexual harassment. I think it’s possible any employee of the show who competed for position or status with any of the women with whom Letterman had sex could sue for sexual harassment if that competing woman was chosen for something and that other person was not.
But I don’t think it’s probable. Consider:
1. Suing Letterman is the end of your writing career in variety, if you’re a writer. It’s not that anyone wants people to be mistreated or thinks it’s okay for anyone to do that. It’s that no one wants someone with baggage, especially baggage of the “suing their employer” variety.
2. If they are writers, all the other writers already knew since the sexual activity began, and no one has sued yet. If you know the environment of a typical writing room, that’s easy enough to understand.
3. This is more trivia than fundamental, but Letterman has strongly supported his writing staff and crew. He paid them when the WGA was on strike – http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN1424578920071115. He obtained a strike waiver for his production company from the WGA, so the show could resume in the good graces of that union that would have been more of a concern for his writers than himself. The likely view of his writing staff and crew: “Who’s going to be the ungrateful POS that sues Dave for not getting some raise after he paid you for a month for not even working?”
The whole thing will blow over once the next scandal hits the airwaves, unless someone says she was coerced, and if that was the case, surely she would have come forward before since these liaisons seems to have occurred years ago??? From what I’ve read so far, the 2-3 women who have come forward and admitted to sleeping with Dave not only speak of him in glowing terms, but one even told TMZ she was “madly in love with him” and that he’d ended the relationship because of their “age difference”. I see no reason why he should either quit or be fired, and predict his audience will actually grow out of curiosity to see how he handles all this in the coming weeks.
Wow?! Hope that author doesn’t get a nosebleed perched so high on his moral soap box. The comments re: Moonves and Chen are a joke. With so little relevant info out there? Must be nice to be the judge and the jury.
I agree, I don’t consider this a scandal. If fact, I’m more insulted by the people who think he should get in trouble then I am in what he actually did. According to those people, women are so weak willed it is impossible for them to say no to sleeping with their boss, even if the really, really didn’t want to.
If any of the women had any sort of issue we would have heard about it years ago.
He’s gone.
The upcoming sexual harrassment lawsuits will be in the millions.
Jon Stewart Leibovitz will replace him.
I wasn’t aware anyone thought he was going anywhere. Ideally I’d like it if he got like a slap on the wrist by the audience of 10% ratings dip but in reality it will probably only help him.
The only thing that might cause some problems is if it turned out later that some of the staffers he “was with” were married. But even then I doubt he’d be fired, it just might take a small toll on his image.
Personally he creeps me out. I was a big fan in the mid 80s but these days yuck, long before this scandal. But I know that’s not true for a lot of the audience, and he’ll weather this.
I don’t think the Moonves comparison is apt though because that at least was a real relationship that evolved into something meaningful, and this was just a guy dipping his pen in the company inkwell.
Really though, isn’t this common with successful men? Because in order to achieve big time success you tend to have to be married to your work which means you’re not around your wife nearly enough and are usually forming close relationships with staffers. I think it happens across the board in all lines of work with workaholic types.
Except for bloggers because they are in their pajamas as home.
So do you think David Letterman will not retire like planned
Vetinari, “I don’t think the Moonves comparison is apt though because that at least was a real relationship that evolved into something meaningful, and this was just a guy dipping his pen in the company inkwell.”
I see I was chided by gbd above as well because he lacks the ability to read.
I’m not judging either Letterman or Moonves, but their situations are similar enough to cause Moonves to be somewhat limited in his reactions.
As for Moonves & Letterman’s situations being different. They *ended* differently, but I doubt they *started* differently.