But one of the great things I have great interest in is late night television.

Definitely when I was growing up, Carson was the best.

And by the time I got to college, Letterman was everything.

And now you have a situation where on average, you take Kimmel, if you take Fallon and you take Colbert, they get about it too.

Where Carson, and I know it was a different time,

cable vision, cable was just emerging, was getting about $7 million.

And Letterman ends up when he was leaving, was getting about $3 million.

And this week is the last week of the Colbert show.

And believe it or not, he was winning the ratings race.

But the show is losing millions of dollars. What has happened

a late night television? A man that knows joins us now, Mark Malkoff. He's a comedian author of Love

Johnny Carson, one obsessive fan's journey to find the genius behind the legend. And Mark, first off,

thanks so much for joining us. Congratulations on the book. Now, first off, for you,

you have a personal up-close experience in late-night television. I mean, who did you work for?

Brian, so I worked for David Letterman on the Late Show. It was working for comedy royalty,

and then I had a day job where I worked for Stephen Colbert in the Colbert Report when we were

on Comedy Central.

So, you know, I was there actually for the very first late show, 34-year-old franchise. I was in the second row as a teenager. So I have a history with the late show. So you were always a Letterman fan? I was. I mean, I love Johnny Carson. I interviewed over 400 people about him. But yeah, after Carson, I think Dave probably did the show better than anyone.

And all the late night hosts worship Dave and Johnny Carson certainly.

So the thing is, Mark, I remember like yesterday, everybody was talking about who is going to be Carson's successor. Is he going to retire and Bet Midler sings him off? And then Leno gets named and

Letterman gets hurt. His feelings get hurt and he spins off. Can bring us back to that moment?

So August 30th, 1993, 23 million people tune into David Letterman's debut. CBS stock went up. It was,

...