US talk hosts pay tribute to David Letterman.

American talk show hosts Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Conan O’Brien and James Corden have all paid tribute to David Letterman, acknowledging his influence on their careers.

“I, like every kid who grew up watching him, will miss him,” Fallon said. He even showed a page from his eighth grade yearbook signed by a teacher who had predicted that he would take over for Letterman on “The Late Night Show” one day.

“He’s always just there when you need him. I remember after 9/11, we needed somebody,” Fallon said. “The city was in shock. We’re all looking for answers. We wanted to see what Dave had to say and we looked at him to say something.”

“He said, ‘There is only one requirement for any of us and that is to be courageous, because courage, as you know, defines all other human behaviour.’ We needed that. David Letterman is courageous. Have a nice retirement, Dave.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y29ELOsXSI0

“If you watched it without paying attention, it was a lot like The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, with guests and an audience and a band, but it was weird,” said Kimmel.

“Even though it looked like every other talk show, it wasn’t. It was totally original, primarily because the host of the show — who a lot of the time seemed embarrassed to even be there, he did not seem like he was a part of show business, he was uncomfortable, he never pretended to be excited and his way of saying things was so subtle that a lot of the time, the people he was talking to didn’t know he was joking.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll-sfo7N7cw

“He was for me — and I think many comics in my generation — an incredible epiphany of how a talk show or how entertainment, or how television,” Jon Stewart said recently.

“For God’s sake, the man put a camera on a monkey! It seems so simple now! But back then it was mind blowing. And I used to watch that show since the early ’80s and just fell in love with the joy that they had and that they brought.”

“‘Late Night’ debuted my first year in college,” he said. “I learned more from Dave than I did going to my classes — especially the ones I did not go to because I stayed up until 1:30 watching Dave,” said Colbert.

“I do not envy whoever they try to put in that chair.”

Seth Meyers even re-created the Letterman opening title sequence.

“At one of the lowest points of my life, when I was a 30-year-old national punchline, Dave, for reasons I still don’t really understand — completely rescued me. I truly believe that simple act of kindness turned everything around and made all the difference,” Conan O’Brien said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_UfC0tX4aE

James Corden duets with Sting.

Letterman bows out at 10pm tonight on TEN.