REPORT: CBS WANTED LETTERMAN TO MOVE SHOW TO HOLLYWOOD

David Letterman considered setting up shop in Hollywood and leaving New York when he left NBC and jumped to CBS in 1992, according to Newsday. In an interview with the newspaper Hal Gurnee, who had been the director of the Tonight show when it was hosted by Jack Paar, then went on to direct Late Show with David Letterman, recalled: “When Dave asked Morty (Robert Morton, former exec producer) and me to look at studios we went out to the West Coast because CBS was very anxious to get him out there to fill up one of its big new studios. So Dave afterwards called me as soon as we went through the studios and wanted to know how it was. I said, ‘It’s like NASA — there’s an enormous white building and a parking lot for 2,000 cars. If that’s appealing to you, it’s not to me….'” He eventually persuaded Letterman to remain in New York and move into the Ed Sullivan Theater. Gurnee added that there are “more interesting people and greater diversity” in New York than anywhere else.