Here’s Why CBS Pulled All Of David Letterman’s ‘Late Show’ Content Off YouTube

If you’re looking for old — or even recent — clips, interviews, or footage from The Late Show with David Letterman, you’re going to be hard-pressed to find much, after everything from Letterman’s Late Show YouTube channel mysteriously disappeared. Yes, even the finale has disappeared, less than a month after the Late Show went off the air.

Not only has all The Late Show content been pulled from YouTube, it’s no longer on the CBS website, either. It also means that all the embedded videos on hundreds of websites from The Late Show no longer work, either.

When news of this first broke a couple of days ago, it felt like a slap in the face of Letterman, to see CBS not only moving on from Letterman so quickly, but seemingly trying to erase him from the internet!

Not so, actually. Turns out, it’s not CBS’s fault that it’s all been removed. It’s Letterman’s. It’s his Worldwide Pants production company that owns all the digital rights to The Late Show, and those rights reverted back to Letterman.

Worldwide Pants has yet to comment on the situation, and we do not yet know when — or if — the company will re-add 22 years of Late Show content. I’d like to think that they would, because it’s comforting knowing that Letterman’s content is available. However, knowing Dave, he’s just the kind of guy who might prefer being remembered in hearts and minds than on the intertubes.

In the meantime, I hope you kept The Late Show finale on your DVRs, because that’s about the only place you can watch it now.

(Via Vulture and Buzzfeed)

×