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How Damaged Is Dave? 10 Top TV Critics Tell
How should Letterman proceed -- and where will this all end?
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What's next for Dave?
That's the question of the moment in TV circles these days. Conversations usually dominated by talk of ratings and new fall series now inevitably end up focusing on the future of CBS "Late Show" host David Letterman.
Letterman has now tackled news of his sexual dalliances head-on in two extraordinary on-air explanations. He's won raves from critics, most of who have spent the last 25 years worshipping at the altar of Letterman. And his ratings, so far at least, have remained high.
There's a case to be made that the Letterman story should now wind down -- unless or until Letterman's extortionist, Joe Halderman, is brought to trial.
And yet, this is the era of neverending, non-stop media coverage of events. Never mind a Michael Jackson death, these days even minor stories can spawn weeks of play on the Internet and in the tabloids.
To try to figure out where Davegate goes next, TheWrap solicited the help of 10 of the nation's top TV critics and media reporters.
Our questions: Do you think the Letterman scandal will go away now? Is the media being too tough on Dave -- or too easy? And how should Letterman proceed next?
Maureen Ryan
Chicago Tribune
I don't think this goes away at all. In fact, given what Joe Halderman's lawyer has been saying the last few days, I foresee this becoming an ongoing spectacle, which very well could result in weeks or months of tabloid scrutiny.
If he continues to make jokes about the situation, he runs the risk of trivializing it and making it seem as though he just doesn't care. And that's a problem, given that possible or actual sexual harassment are not laughing matters. Yet if he clams up about it, he may come off as defensive.
In the long run, I think he's probably best served by doing a news interview on another program and supplying a more satisfying timeline of what happened when.
The bigger question to me is one that was implicit in a recent Nancy Franklin New Yorker review of Jay Leno.
Franklin pointed out that Leno, Letterman and Conan O'Brien have a grand total of zero female writers on their staffs. I'm not looking forward to wall-to-wall tabloid coverage of Dave, but I am looking forward to the articles that research and expose the boys clubs of late-night TV and explore what kinds of work environments they create.
James Poniewozik
Time
This situation is too volatile to predict, but my guess is: If (big if) no big shoes drop, Letterman comes out of this fine.
First, people don't like to deny themselves entertainment to punish celebrities; a star usually has to get in ugly-big trouble to destroy his career. My sense so far is that even people who disapprove don't finally think it's much of their business. (Whereas, say, the people still outraged over the Palin jokes see this as vindication -- but they were not exactly his fan base.)
Part of the issue is: Stars suffer most from scandals when those scandals contradict their core personae.
Comments
OBC Says
Some viewers have long been commenting on the absence of women on the writing staffs of late night tv. Finally a journalist is writing about this deficiency.
Aside from employment issues, a male point of view monopolizes the microphone from writing staffs to hosts (to announcers and band - minus a token female musician on Letterman & Leno.)
And yet Letterman's audience, for example, is 58% female. Many women have turned off late night shows altogether with the wall of middle aged male hosts, frat boy bordering on misogynistic 'jokes,' and total disregard of more than half the population.
It's not as if Late Show (or the others) is wildly funny. The writing has long been lazy and stale and could use an injection of life and fresh viewpoint. Ironically, Dave was never as good as the NBC days when Dave's previous girlfriend ran the writing staff.
Anna Burke Says
I don't understand why the focus is mostly on the posibility of trouble coming from one of the "consenting adult" staffers who willing slept with Dave.
Maybe he hit on someone who didn't comply...what happened to her? Did she get special segments on the show? Was she bantering with Dave on national TV? The careers of the women who slept with Dave were undeniably enhanced, and they were given professional opportunities over other Late Show women staffers.
That's why I think the next shoe that'll drop will be a smart lawyer filing a sexual DISCRIMINATION suit on behalf of all those women who weren't put on the Letterman's Lovers Career Path.
Finally, Maureen Ryan nailed what should be the media's follow-up to this:
"...I am looking forward to the articles that research and expose the boys clubs of late-night TV and explore what kinds of work environments they create."
mekhalaci Says
I feel like the female critics in this article are all judging Letterman's decisions to commit the act of adultery instead of looking at whether or not this story will go away. It is always sad, hurtful and life-changing for a woman OR MAN when their spouse cheats on them. Granted. However, will this affect Letterman's career or ratings? Of course not! Roman Polanski forcefully raped a 13 year-old girl and then fled the country for 30-something years and he's being painted as a tortured artist who has been done wrong by the US justice system. Chris Brown beat Rihanna to a pulp and he's recording collaborations with the hottest artists and still topping the charts.
This is what's going to happen: soon, Letterman's own jokes on the scandal will die down to nothing. The news on the scandal will also slowly go away just like all celeb news does. Every now and then, we may hear a rumbling on the extortion and/or sexual harassment trials. It will have the same effect as when we hear a news snippet about Anna Nicole Smith. That is: nothing. No one is going to care after, oh, two weeks?
Cheating Hollywood celebrities is nothing new and nothing to get too worked up about. Sad, but true.