unknowns, but they include barbra streisand, eddie murphy, ellen degeneres, chris rock and david letterman. carson also advanced the careers of emerging comics like steve mart is -- martin and joan rivers. there are really four ways to measure carson's success. first of all, of course, is tenure. 30 years at the head of the tonight show compared to 22 for jay leno and six for jimmy fallon so far. it started in 1954, the dawn of television. that's 66 years ago. even though he's long been off the air, the late night format still looks a lot the way carson built it. in terms of audience, the second measure, carson had an audience of 15 million people at its peak. that is an astonishing number for his time and for ours. jimmy fallon's tonight show, which ranks third at 11:30, has less than 2 million viewers a night on average. now, a lot of that has to do with the rise of cable and the rise of the internet where audiences have splintered, but make no mistake about it, it's an astonishing difference compared to the past. johnny carson was also a gold mine for nbc. at its peak, "the tonight show

nbc josh letterman is in columbus. the state's bureau is already looking into what happened here, right? >> if you look at what happened over the last 24 hours. the police rushed to put out this body cam video within a few hours of the shooting taking place. at the same time avoiding rendering any judgment about whether or not of the officer was justified in this shooting or not. i think that is a reflection both of the fact that this police force is going to be under intense scrutiny over this event, as well as the fact that they know that by saying this police officer was essentially trying to protect someone's life by shooting this girl which is exactly what authorities are saying. they know the public may not be in a position to take their word for that given everything that is taking place around the country. they wanted to put out that video they say shows a girl who is later confirmed to be makyla bryant. attempting to stab someone on video just as police officers shot her. they're not saying whether or not that

richard pryor jerry seinfeld robin williams, eddie murphy ellen degeneres, chris, rock and david letterman. carson also advanced the careers of emerging comics like steve martin and woody allen and jay leno and joan rivers and then of course he provided a venue for established performers like don rickles and buddy hackett and jimmy stewart. they're really four ways to measure carson's success. first of all, of course is tenure 30 years at the head of the tonight show compared to 22 for jay leno and six so far for jimmy fallon. the tonight shows the longest running entertainment show in you the united states. it started in 1954 1954 at the dawn of television. if that's 66 years ago and even though he has long been off the air the late night format still looks a lot like the way that carson built it. in terms of audience the second measure carson had an audience of 15 million people at its peak. that is an astonishing number for his time. and for ours jimmy fallon's tonight show, which ranks third at 11:30. has less than 2 million viewers a night on average. now a lot of that has to do with

let's not blow this war is it i'm on letterman i'm not going to get out michael i'm not a wreck that was also really appalling on the kindest way. says i did it. because out of all the troops of the bubble to the dot so it doesn't cut oddly model and i hate to defend the struggle still. it was some time ago that the tag group chose this square in which to dance the dozens of paper to clearly challenging simply tend up the music guy but syria is different even in the taqiyya where there was no street to street fighting during the war people seem to have conflicting feelings about performance place like they're. no longer because they're on the game going to be a basis for numbers of very jobs market canal street because they don't get a name like dogs or foreign firms ops like to look them up on about libya and i'm pretty sure it was me trying to let me know when caught in the wouldn't believe me and d.c. is very very successful investor mr. earlier what i ask of you must honor the courage of the 300. the 1st must be those of my father of the victims of how to understand the others of

personnel appear to be increasing josh letterman has reported extensively on these mystery attacks since when this first came to light in 2017, the u.s. government referred to them as targeted attacks, affecting u.s. personnel serving in cuba. over the years, the investigation stalled and the u.s. stopped using the word attacks, or weapons. instead, simply referring to these as health incidents. as the u.s. government struggled to figure out what was going on and a growing number of experts questioned whether it might just be mass hysteria today two top senators briefed on the intelligence say these were definitely attacks carried out by some time of weapon nbc news has reported that the u.s. government considers russia to be the most likely culprit. and a report last year by the national academies of science found brain injuries were most likely caused by pulsed microwave energy the cia director said it is a serious threat >> that kind of technology is very real. and it can threaten people not by bullets simply by using the capabilities to send a wave into an embassy >> what has made th

he became famous after many tv appearances on shows like late night with david letterman and the today show. the family wrote a personal statement on the twitter account saying doctors diagnosed our dad with dementia now believed to be alzheimer's disease. >>> come experience floor and decor's grand opening in pleasant hill! comfortably shop our wide aisles anand be amazezed with ourr even w wider selecection. discover t the perfectct floooor at the p perfect prie in w whatever waway is perfect fofor you. explplore floor r and dec rs newestst area locacation. now w open in pleasantnt hill! great party carly you must of blown your budget. not exactly. you have great wine name brand snacks tons of meat, and where did you get this imported cheese? hello? grocery outlet bargain market. oh, more bubbles? more bubbles for less benjamins our amazing 20% off wine sael is going on now until april 13th at your neighborhood grocery outlet >>> the pandemic changed many things including the clothing we wear. reporter kate smith looks at how we capitalize on the trend of dressing down. >> you have t

a long time ago, i think it was -- went on david letterman decades ago and letterman asked him what is one piece of advice would be to aspiring journalists dan rather. -- dan rather said the goal of a journalist is to take something important and make it interesting, not to take something interesting and make it important. i think about that when i write about judicial nominations. it is important, but not as flashy as many other subjects. you work in fields connected to the courts and the way our courts function. how do you approach the subject in terms of making people care about what our courts are doing and why they are important and why they should get involved? it is not something people are going to readily be excited about or understand, necessarily people -- necessarily. and yet, there are things all the time disenfranchising people that are not fair about the system. i think people are disconnected from what is going on with courts. do you have a rule of thumb you used to make people pay attention? how do you guys take this important thing and make it interesting? nancy: we h

known for his own tv shows and for his appearances on talk shows hosted by johnny carson and david lettermanmes" reports andrew giuliani, son of former new york city mayor rudy giuliani, says he is considering a run for governor of new york. the 35-year-old has never held political office before. he says he might run as a republican. new york's current governor, democrat andrew cuomo, is expected to run for a fourth term. cuomo is the subject of several investigations including alleged sexual harassment and his handling of state nursing homes during the pandemic. >>> and espn reports the chairman of the augusta national golf club and the masters tournament says he is against a boycott over georgia's controversial new voting law. yesterday during his annual pretournament news conference, brad ridley said, quote, the right to vote is fundamental in our democratic society. critics of the law say it will make it harder for people of color to vote. major league baseball moved its all-star game out of atlanta because of the new law. ridley said he's not in favor of a boycott. >> unfortunately, the

the idea that bill murray would take an hour of his day and sit down with us led to david letterman,a message on an answering machine. al knows this. if he's interested, he'll call you back. >> no way. >> he didn't call us back, but he came in to do a live interview with you guys. he was in the green room he shouted to our bookers, i want to do that willie geist show let's do it after this they said, we have to -- we didn't have time to turn it that quickly. he said, all right have him come to the hotel 10:00 tomorrow morning >> oh, my goodness we went to the roof of his hotel. there is a bar there 10:00 in the morning, the elevator doors open, there is bill murray, hair messed up, golf zip-up, pants, talked about "caddyshack" and "ghost busters. >> wow, crazy. >> you have so many stories with these phenomenal people. >> yeah, i just feel lucky i mean, honestly, hoe dada and i were talking about this the other day, when you find yourself seated in a drop-top convertible in beverly hills driving al pacino around, you wonder what blessings you have and what happened in your life to put

with biden which biden agreed with the interview and said that that is a killer that really hurt letterman putin is happy to be cost as a kind of. scary big time opponent of the west what he does want to be treated is as an equal and by calling him a killer i think there was a worry in moscow that russia would be diplomatically isolated in treaty does beyond the pale and by setting up this troop movements he now has a summit on the cards this summer with biden in the short term he's got what he wanted you know it's a very good point to make there nicolas connelly with the latest tonight and nick thank you. will wife. nasa scientists say they are a small step but important step closer to making that possible the perseverance rover has converted carbon dioxide from the martian atmosphere into oxygen for the very 1st time nasa hopes to be able to do this on a larger scale in the future and that could pave the way for human exploration and colonization of the red planet. humans on mars so far it's still science fiction the red planet isn't just extremely far away it also lacks most of the basi

with biden which biden agreed with the interview and said to me putin is a killer that really hurt letterman putin is happy to be cost as a kind of. scary big time opponent of the west what he does want to be treated though is as an equal and by calling him a killer i think there was a worry in moscow that russia would be diplomatically isolated in treaty does beyond the pale and by setting up this troop movements he now has a summit on the cards this summer with you know in the short term he's got what he wanted you know it's a very good point to make there nicolas connelly with the latest tonight in nic thank you life on mars nasa scientists say they are important step closer to making that possible the perseverance rover has converted carbon dioxide from the martian atmosphere into oxygen for the very 1st time now it's hoped that future versions of the method in the equipment that were used to do this is so that they could pave the way for human exploration of the red planet perhaps even a colony. humans on mars so far it's still science fiction the red planet isn't just extremely far awa

know them and then we end up hit it off and then we try to develop a show you know kind of like the letterman rare mano kind of idea did not go anywhere but we you know jim and i just kept doing as much of it and then when he was like joe i came to dad and i've done it now you know 6 or 7 and done like 13 with him fallon and so he just been very good to me and you know i just do stand up on that i like being it's nice of guy he's going to be loyal to one kind of thing and he has he's is nice is you know he always asked if it is you then i say give me i think he loves his job like he goes to it and he loves what he does and he's an entertainer he's an insane somewhere along the way you must you know you were opening for chris right it's so so funny with rock when i met rock he was just such a young such a nice that. he when you just came in the s. and l. when i was there and you know he had yet to become one of the greatest american stand ups ever and i assume when you met him he was more like an emeritus status or you know more avuncular sage guy i know him as a kid you know him as an obi wan

conservative viewers while the more liberal viewers steadily migrated to late night on cbs where david letterman'sarper image particularly during the george w bush years led to higher ratings for cbs. that trend is continued to the current day stephen colbert on cbs consistently exceeds the ratings of tonight show host jimmy fallon. who focuses less on humor and jimmy fallon of course is particularly famous for a famous hair tasseling interview with candidate trump during the night before the 2016 election where the critics said was a little more than a promotion for trump. trump by the way had starred on nbc in the apprentice before he became a presidential candidates, but i think it's fair to say that for all of these positive accolades about johnny carson's program. it's important to remember that it also had its flaws. there are certain things that a modern viewer would not find all that funny today. he had a character aunt blaby who was about an elderly women an elderly woman who shall we say did not age gracefully it would be attract as extraordinarily ages today. he had another character th

. >> joining me now is josh letterman. that's fascinating.re enough jobs to deal with some of the opposition out west to this initiative? >> this is not going to be a one size fits all solution to the bigger challenge. some of these jobs in fossil fuels are going to have to go away if the u.s. is going to move towards a renewable future. but the definitely has always been in the details. they have been trying to match up people with new jobs in places they live and use the skills they already have. john kerry was mocked for suggesting these coal miners could install solar panels. so the idea with this is you already know how to drill an oil well, already in a place where those wells exist and contributing to climate change, can this help create a just transition for people who will lose their jobs and position them for greater jobs in the future. >> great job, josh. >>> and a rare bipartisanship takes action on anti-asian hate crimes. anti-asian hate crimes storage or cloud. we kept going. working with our customers to enable the kind of tech

. >> reporter: before letterman and leno and colbert and kimmel. sheep explode. >> johnny created the system where he took each joke and put it on the board that went across the lincoln studio. so that way he could edit while he was performing. >> reporter: johnny carson was not black or white or asian or nothing. he was funny. >> he was just part of culture. johnny carson came from the tv set. >> when he stepped down -- >> reporter: a rush to take over the tonight show was its own "game of thrones." joans river thought she had it. >> letter was the genius. >> reporter: the shake up were seismic were changing the game. everyone was coming to play. >> we deserve better than tyranny and corruption. >> yes, you do. >> reporter: political comedy got serious just as politics got absurd. >> reporter: the voice of sanity and reason. the daily show put him in the role of straight man. >> reporter: the evolution never stopped. >> konan will have good ideas and he can be the producer. >> if they have their way, frivolous lawsuits will be a thing of the past.

actually i love the days when you would at night in bed turn on the tv, watch the sports and watch letterman-- >> katie: is this a blockbuster trip, and try to find something? >> dana: don't bring that up again. >> jesse: i would love to log onto gutfeld's account and see what the algorithm pushes out first. i might have to cover my eyes at first. i think they should try this netflix things at restaurants. they bring your food. and you just take it. i like that. don't make a decision. >> katie: juan, does your entire family have your netflix password to watch whatever they want? >> juan: i think is it netflix or amazon where they ask who is watching? who is watching, they want to know who is watching. and to my mind, it is just like youtube. if you watch boxing matches, they just keep, the algorithms produces more boxing matches to watch. i don't want algorithm's choosing everything i watch. i would rather have some control in my life. it makes me feel like i was being served up to them rather than them serving me. before you sound like a republican, juan. >> juan: there you go. >> katie: ne

however you're now in bilateral talks with russia to secure doses of the sputnik the vaccine is letterman put in really your best hope to solve this vaccine fiasco is surely you know many i would i would use. sputnik maxine in case that european medical agency emma might confirm that this is a good vaccine for the pity with sputnik is that they are not so many quantities of their product that you would not be able to sell it to other countries look into that what happened for example in the balkan states where some of the states. for example they have information that they can get some vaccine from sputnik as have learned in the last days they didn't have anywhere to see it and now and they are not able to deliver to the people because at the quantity it's not they have access the vaccine might be will but. also the protection paper says capacities in russia and other states it's a moment too weak to produce a quantities of it but put it want to deliver and even more controversial and i'd like to move to international relations now merkel continues to back putin's nordstrom to pipeline de

we think it does not go far enough in terms of benefiting letterman's progress of vaccinating.ions for travel over the summer will continue to materialize. guy: what does this travel look like? how much of it comes back? how does the mix change? i am hearing a lot about -- bfr is a big part of the business for the u.s. carrier at the moment. how you see your exchange -- how do you see your business changing? shai: anyone who says they know will be the emerging mix in the back end of this year and into 2022 is mistaken. it is impossible to predict. i believe business travel is going down. will it come back by 2023? let's assume it does. in the interim it will come down because there are certain things we can now do. we have all done a crash course on remote working and digital first strategies. it will change. that mix is changing. there will be longer trades. people will augment a holiday plus work. there will be no masks anywhere in the world. we will see the emergence of the premium leisure market. people have saved a lot of money. i know you covered this quite a lot in your

. >> reporter: for decades he and his friends hung out with david letterman, the laughs always closeeez. >> reporter: a proud family, his advocacy and innate ability to connect people with animals are what friends say will always p set him apart. >> there's an old saying that says in the end we protect what we love, we love what we understand, and we understand what we're taught. jack is a masterful teacher. >> reporter: jack hanna's family writing that despite his diagnosis, he still has a sense of humor and is wearing his trademark khakis around the house. guys >> of course >> still has some animals close by too. >> yeah. >> those letterman spots >> unbelievable. >> some of the best late night tv i've ever seen. >> thank you, kerry. >> kerry, thanks. >>> guys, we still have a lot more coming up, including uncle al have you seen the sneak peek of the next ghostbusters movie? you're going to love it. that's it right there, we've shown the whole thing, darn it quick check of your local news and weather first. >>> test test test what happens to your body language when your underarms ar

our favorite sitdowns, including a cadillac cruise with al pacino, a day in the stream with david lettermannversation with the late chadwick bosman. >>> an american here roy of d-day and the embodiment of the of the greatest generation. >>> our photo of the week. queen elizabeth sitting alone inside st. george's chapel at the funeral of her beloved husband of 73 years, prince philip. the queen and 29 other attendees kept apart due to covid restrictions. the prince died a week ago the prince died a week ago friday at the age of 99. i think the sketchy website i bought this turtle from stole all of my info. ooh, have you looked on the bright side? discover never holds you responsible for unauthorized purchases on your card. (giggling) that's my turtle. fraud protection. discover. something brighter. i was totally stranded. (giggling) no tp?'s my turtle. so what happened? well... we started buying charmin super mega roll. charmin super mega roll is 6 rolls in 1 and lasts so much longer. enjoy the go with charmin. guaranteed to fit or your money back. (vo) the chase is on! now your family can f

we'll use david letterman style.let's see, excel fleet which bases power trains systems for hybrid and electric trucks. this hits too close to home because we had them on the show in early march the short sellers with muddy waters research released a devastating report where theyii pipeline and making up the sales pipeline making it up all right. this is something that night before and he dedpflegcted rath than giving us an orange management's response was disastrous, excel fleet just quibbled over definitions. then, when they reported at the end of march, they slashed the forecast just as muddy waters would have said. excel fleet had 75 million in sales this year is out the window now they are willing to provide guidance for the next quarter. no wonder the stock is cut in half i'm surprised it doesn't down more the company with the platform for electric vehicles going into the spac merger in december, these guys told the world. they wanted to sell technology and a plan, forget the consumer. they want fleet and comme

. >> stephen: that's you fly fishing with dave letterman in 2019. what did you guys catch?interview because he was so intent on catching fish. we go through all the trouble. we get in. and we have a crew of six guys stomping through the water scaring the fish. i think he was furious we didn't catch the fish. >> stephen: it was the crew's fault. you hear that, crew, over at "sunday today" willie threw you under the bus. >> it's important to blame the crew. >> stephen: my maj strg knows that. it's always your fault. al pacino. >> that is al pacino. last year we were driving around beverly hills in a drop-top '74 cadillac eldorado which is a surreal moment. when you grow up watching "scarface" and "the godfather," people like pacino live on a different planet. >> stephen: any times you have been totally out of your element? >> yeah, i mean, so there are good things about going out in the world, and sometimes things that make you slightly uncomfortable. like not just this interview, for example. but tracy morgan, we were at his house. ey invited us over. very generous mean has

he looks like a tourist posing for a photo at letterman's old desk he's just holding a pen and what appearslike a therapist who hasn't been paying attention during the session. and yet the conference also proved that trump is also as politically weak as he's ever been among the hardcore republicans at cpac. he only got 55% of the vote in a straw poll and only 68% want him to run again if you can't even get above 55% with these wingnuts, how could you ever get a majority in a national election? this is your crowd it's like if you open a store that sells monocles and artisanal pickles in williamsburg if you don't make a killing there, you're not going to do better in, like, staten island but the only truly unifying thing at cpac, the beating heart of modern conservatism, were the dumb, invented culture war grievances, as evidenced by their complaints about total nonsense, like the muppets and mr. potato head. >> this month alone they've banned the muppets >> you see last week they tried to cancel kermit the frog and mr. potato head? you see that >> look out, mr. potato head you're next. >> se

david letterman got more outspoken.ar, two years with the election and donald trump, things were very much out there. and people commenting on what was going on became very much a part of late night. >> and if you asked someone, who is your favorite, they're going to have a strong opinion here. who do you think is the greatest of all time? >> you have to say carson is the greatest because he was on there for 30 years and dominated television. he had a huge audience. when he had the staged marriage of the singer tiny tim, 40 million people watched that show. it's unimaginable to think about that. that's bigger than the population of poland. and they are all watching one late-night show. >> i do know you stiffed chevy chase there. put that in perspective. how big of a deal was johnny carson compared to where we are now? >> he was the biggest star on television, no doubt about it. everybody, every kind of walk of life from entertainment to sports to news, politics, they appeared on that show. that show dominated television

. >> all letterman, thank you so much. sounds like a triple win. i'm stephanie ruhle, we'll have breaking news once we have any information from from that jury in derek chauvin's case happening right now in minneapolis, minnesota. kris jansing has coverage, next. . an impression. ♪ i swear ♪ it was like that towel and jaycee were the only two left on earth. but... they weren't. you can always spot a first timer. gain flings with oxi boost and febreze. try the new light scent from gain. hello spring daydream. that delicious scramble was microwaved? get outta here. everybody's a skeptic. wright brothers? more like, yeah right, brothers! get outta here! it's not crazy. it's a scramble. just crack an egg. it's moving day. and while her friends are doing the heavy lifting, it's a scramble. jess is busy moving her xfinity internet and tv services. it only takes about a minute. wait, a minute? but what have you been doing for the last two hours? ...delegating? oh, good one. move your xfinity services without breaking a sweat. xfi

. >> nbc news correspondent josh letterman was at that press conference in fredericksburg, virginia.itself and what are officials saying, what is the condition of mr. brown? >> well, officials initially, andry a said that isiah brown had non-life-threatening injuries and now his family and their attorney says that's false. they say he's currently hooked up to a breathing machine in the hospital. they describe his situation as touch and go. he's had multiple surgeries in which two out of ten bullets that they say were shot into isiah brown were removed leaving another eight bullets still in his body. this all apparently started around 2:30 in the morning when a sheriff's deputy gave, saya isaiah brown a ride home when his car had broken down. he was called to an altercation with his brother and then threatened to kill his brother before he then tells the 911 dispatcher that he, in fact, did not have a gun there. he then, after the deputies arrived, was ultimately shot by the sheriff's deputy, the same deputy who had driven him home. police releasing this recording of those moments, we

>> josh letterman is in columbus, ohio now.his is very early for police to release body camera video. are they trying to get in front of this and show people that this is -- this was a justified action on the part of police? we don't get video this soon? >> they're not going to far as to say it's justified and they had to put out what information they had as soon as possible, literally within hours of this shooting taking place. so let's catch people up on what we do and don't know about exactly what happened. the mayor of the city calling this a tragic day while the acting police chief says they were responding to a 911 call where a girl was reported being the subject of an attempt to stab her with a knife. she arrived on the scene a few minutes later. police saw a confrontation and then they say that what you can see on that video is a girl taking a knife and attempting to stab another girl and that that is the point where officers began to shoot. they are pointing out that it is legal and part of their policy for a police of

own bobblehead in georgia, david koun developed a huge following while pointing out he's not david lettermanoclaim tuesday, march 29th, 2021, as nic zapko day. yay. >> she didn't miss a beat. >> best birthday ever, obviously. >> a day of thanks for a lifetime of invaluable work. two weeks later, they reversed roles and zapko surprised the governor, giving him an access award. zapko hopes her story pushes more elected leaders and officials out there to expand access to asl. back to you guys. >> great story. >> really appreciate that. >> thank you, joe. >>> we're not done yet, we're back with popstart, including some new music from taylor swift and the newest hit from dolly parton parton firs and free, and free, and free, and free, free, and free, and free. free, free. and free, and free, and free, and free, free, that's right, turbotax free edition is free. free, free free free. >>> all right, we're going to do popstart a little late but right on time with dylan. >> that's all right, it's always time for popstart so here we are go we are talking about dolly parton in the last year she release

. >> what about letterman? >> oh, dave. i mean, joe, you and i love dave. always have loved dave.same bait shop up in westchester. so we have to give a little booking credit to todd and charlie up in cross river. so we went and stood in a stream up there. we went fishing together -- he's a big fly fisherman. he went and scouted the stream for a couple of days before our interview to find the right spot. and then sat down with us and talked through his career for like two hours. it was just, again, as someone who grew up and so looked up to him, it was a really special day. >> that had to be a special day. you know, alex and i have a favorite bait shop. it's called sabars. >> a little different. >> willie, we're very proud of you. congratulations. >> thanks, guys. see you sunday. >> yes. >>> coming up, our next guest was granted exclusive access to chronicle the life and work of one of america's greatest literary minds. we'll tell you who that is, next. we're back in two minutes. who next we're back in two minutes. ♪ na na na na ♪ na na na na... ♪ hey hey hey. ♪ goodbye. ♪ na na na