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After the battle for The Tonight Show, when NBC gave it to comedian Jay Leno, Letterman decided to take an offer from CBS for a late night talk show to compete with The Tonight Show.

So in 1993, Letterman and his crew moved to CBS and Late Show with David Letterman was born, beginning on August 30, 1993, although NBC would air repeats of Late Night until September 10, 1993.

Up until this, the three competing television broadcast networks tried to create talk shows to compete with the success of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, but all failed.

A total of 1, 819 shows were broadcast during its eleven and a half year run ( an episode on January 16, 1991 went unaired due to pre-emption for coverage the beginning of the Gulf War ; the program had already been shot before word came out of Baghdad that United States airstrikes were beginning ).