David Letterman will make his long-awaited return to the Ed Sullivan Theater for the first time since he departed The Late Show in 2015 when appears as Stephen Colbert’s guest on the Monday, November 20th episode.
The current host of the Late Show announced the return of the former host earlier this week. “On Monday, I will be joined, right there, in that chair, by a man who is no stranger to the Ed Sullivan Theater, though I know for a fact he has not been here for eight-and-a-half years, because my guest is Mr. David Letterman. Boom,” Colbert said.
While Letterman has made sporadic appearances on late-night television since he departed The Late Show — he’s guested on Jimmy Kimmel Live and Late Night With Seth Meyers, as well as the final episode of The Late Late Show With James Corden earlier this year — Monday’s appearance marks the first time he’s returning to the show he launched on CBS back in 1993.
Additionally, the National will serve as the musical guests on Monday’s Late Show after being handpicked by Letterman to appear. “When David Letterman reaches out to ask if you’ll join him as the musical guest on his first return to The Late Show, there is only one answer… See you on Monday,” the band wrote on social media.
Earlier this year, Letterman praised the National during a conversation about music, saying “Oh, I love the National” and calling them “your saddest friend’s favorite band.” “I say that because I love the National, and I wish I could be Matt Berninger because nobody’s cooler than Matt Berninger,” Letterman added (via NME). “They ought to be in the Hall Of Fame.”
News of Letterman’s Late Show reunion comes after he and his former bandleader Paul Shaffer recently announced they would raffle off the Late Show With David Letterman marquee as part of a benefit for Habitat for Humanity.