david letterman

Here’s Why You Can’t Watch Letterman’s Late Show on YouTube Anymore

The Late Show with David Letterman
Miss ya. Photo: CBS Photo Archive/CBS/Getty Images

On Thursday, all of David Letterman’s Late Show episodes and clips disappeared from YouTube and CBS.com, as BuzzFeed noted. Letterman made his late-night farewell on May 20, and soon after, his Late Show marquee was removed from the Ed Sullivan Theater. So was this just the latest casualty of the Stephen Colbert era, or did someone accidentally delete all of his shows? Turns out, it’s simply a copyright issue: “Now that the show has ended, these digital rights revert back to the show’s copyright owner, Worldwide Pants,” a spokesperson for CBS confirmed to Vulture. All those clips belong to David Letterman’s television and film production company, Worldwide Pants, which has yet to comment. So until they pop up elsewhere, let’s all just keep watching Colbert shave his beard off, in memory of the Letterman days.

Why Letterman’s Late Show Isn’t on YouTube