--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: David Letterman retires image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf80a50f1a988cbe7/6998cd3be1ba008edc98e4bd/time-hi-res.webp?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 17, 2015 # David Letterman retires by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  This year marked the end of an era for CBS’s _The Late Show_ when David Letterman stepped down as host after three and a half decades. His first guest, Bill Murray, was aptly his last scheduled visitor. For the final episode on May 20, Letterman took a break from making fun of famous people to let them make fun of him. Everyone from living U.S. presidents—who uttered the line “our long, national nightmare is over”—to actors like Steve Martin, Jim Carrey and Tina Fey, who took turns presenting a version of his signature top 10 lists about “Things I’ve Always Wanted to Say to Dave.” Letterman’s favorite Foo Fighters played “Everlong,” ending the night on a high note. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/top-10-everything-of-2015/4111021/letterman-retires/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/top-10-everything-of-2015/4111021/letterman-retires/"},"headline":"David Letterman retires","datePublished":"2015-11-17T16:32:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:10:35.207Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/top-10-everything-of-2015/4111021/letterman-retires/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf80a50f1a988cbe7/6998cd3be1ba008edc98e4bd/time-hi-res.webp?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf80a50f1a988cbe7/6998cd3be1ba008edc98e4bd/time-hi-res.webp?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/top-10-everything-of-2015/4111021/letterman-retires/","name":"David Letterman retires"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"David Letterman Says Farewell To The 'Late Show'","description":"Wednesday night marked the end of an era in late-night television — David Letterman took the 'Late Night' stage for the very last time.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/AhHnEvXf/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-05-21T05:16:32.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/AhHnEvXf.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/top-10-everything-of-2015/4111021/letterman-retires/","duration":"PT2M15S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/top-10-everything-of-2015/4111021/letterman-retires/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```