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The late-night television show veteran David Letterman once offered this piece of insight about his calling in life: "I cannot sing, dance or act. What else would I be but a talk show host?"
For another four years at least, the gnarled and sardonic Letterman will keep being just that after CBS confirmed it has renewed the 59-year-old's contract to continue hosting The Late Show - which screens in New Zealand nightly on Prime - until 2010.
As well as earning a salary of US$38 million ($55 million), another sweetener for Letterman is that his new contract will take him a year past the anticipated retirement date of his talkshow rival, Jay Leno.
"I'm thrilled to be continuing on at CBS," Letterman said in a statement. "At my age you really don't want to have to learn a new commute."
Letterman, who was born in Indianapolis and started his television career there as a weatherman for a local station, has hosted his show for CBS since 1993.
He previously headed a similar mixture of comedy and celebrity interviews on NBC.
He has often sparred with his guests, including Cher, Shirley MacLaine and Madonna, whose colourful interview with Letterman was the most censored in television talkshow history.
In the past year Letterman has developed an antagonistic relationship with Fox News' conservative television host Bill O'Reilly, to whom Letterman said, "Sixty per cent of what you say is crap".
Letterman's show, beloved by critics, has won 12 Emmy awards, and routinely draws an audience of around 4 million viewers in the US alone.
But it has always lagged behind Leno's show, which attracts 5.7 million on NBC.
In the early 90s, Leno beat Letterman to replace veteran comedian Jimmy Carson when he retired from NBC's The Tonight Show.
The following year Letterman joined CBS to launch his own show and he and Leno have been rivals since.
Leno, 56, announced two years ago he intended to stand down from The Tonight Show in 2009 and would be replaced by comic Conan O'Brien.
Leslie Moonves, president of CBS and a regular target of Letterman's jokes, said of the comic: "His presence on our air is an ongoing source of pride, and the creativity and imagination that The Late Show puts forth every night is an ongoing display of the highest-quality entertainment.
"We are truly honoured that one of the most revered and talented entertainers of our time will continue to call CBS home."
Letterman, who in 2000 had quintuple heart surgery, has scooped interviews with a series of celebrities, including Britney Spears and comedian Michael Richards, better known as Kramer in the Seinfeld comedy series, who appeared via satellite last month to apologise after he launched a racist rant during a stand-up performance at a Los Angeles comedy club.
"You know, I'm a performer. I push the envelope. I work in a very uncontrolled manner on stage. I do a lot of free association, it's spontaneous, I go into character," Richards said during his apology.
One of Letterman's most memorable shows, which are broadcast from New York, took place six days after the 9/11 attacks when he was one of the first comedians to return to the airwaves.
Among his guests was then-CBS news anchor Dan Rather, who was clearly emotional. Letterman said of the attacks in New York and Washington: "If you live to be 1000 years old, will that make any sense to you? Will that make any goddamned sense?"
- INDEPENDENT
