MELTDOWN! Letterman: CBS News Has Been ‘Eviscerated,’ ‘Pissed on’ by ‘Idiots’

In an episode of The Barbara Gaines Show posted on Friday, former CBS’s Late Show host David Letterman was in old-man-yells-at-the-clouds mood as he lamented the impending cancellation of his old show and seethed over CBS News as now being run by “idiots” — ostensibly referring to Paramount Skydance chairman David Ellison and CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss — who’ve “eviscerated” and “pissed on” the network’s legacy.

Yes, David, CBS News is now a disaster because their editor-in-chief believes in a fidelity to the facts, ensuring multiple perspectives are heard, and understanding trust in the press is at record lows. Oh, and because their new CBS Evening News anchor in Tony Dokoupil shares the same values?

“By the way, what about those idiots at CBS? The — the CBS News is a wreck,” he whined.

Gaines concurred, blurting out that “oh, they ruined it.”

Letterman continued on: “It’s just gone. CBS News for decades, going back to World War II, before World War II — they would be — Ed Murrow would be broadcasting the blitz of London from the rooftop of, of buildings in London for CBS Radio.”

This went into his thesis, so to speak, that CBS News has been “pissed on, and eviscerated by these idiots that have taken it over” and they have been “hurting my feelings”:

[A]nd it was that mentality that drove the integrity of CBS News that has been trampled on, pissed on, and eviscerated by these idiots that have taken it over. And I’m at a point now where it’s — it really is hurting my feelings because I’m sick and tired of people saying, oh, wait till those midterms. Kids, we’re far downstream of the midterms having any effect on this.

Again, the sins being alleged here are largely the hypothetical (with Weiss’s tenets of journalism and Dokoupil’s New Years Day commentary on social media) and one of its newscasts, the CBS Evening News.

60 Minutes? Outside of Weiss pulling the shoddy story about CECOT, it’s still been on the left.

CBS Mornings? Liberals are still (largely) ruling the roost there!

And Face the Nation? The Margaret Brennan show? That’s not changing so long as she’s there.

Prior to that mini-tangent, Letterman gushed how he “love[s] Jimmy Kimmel” and claimed the far-left ABC late-night host had “single-handedly brought the people at Disney and all of those other network television owners to their knees” by bringing him back from his five-day time-out (which apparently was akin to murder, or something).

He argued that, by winning a Critics Choice Award, Kimmel made his bosses “seem and appeared to be the fools they are” for having suspended him for his comments about the alleged murderer of Charlie Kirk.

After throwing NBC’s Late Night host Seth Meyers a bone as also “very good,” Letterman cartoonishly claimed “we’re running out of places where you hear these voices” in light of this May’s cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (as though they don’t already dominate the awards shows, comedy world, and wider entertainment industrial complex).

Before going into the CBS rant, Kimmel claimed without evidence that “if we had a president who was a Democrat and behaved the way this Republican President is behaving, Jimmy would be attacking the Democrat president just as much as he attacks.”

“So, it’s not like it’s all politically driven. It’s driven by the behavior of the person in the office,” he added.

Our Alex Christy did, in fact, a comparison between political jokes from the first 100 days of the second Trump presidency and the first 100 days of the Joe Biden regime.

It turns out that late-night shows are not late-night equal offenders as Christy’s data showed Kimmel and his buddies “still joked about Trump far more often than Biden at a 385-88, or an 81 percent clip over 95 episodes.

To see the relevant transcript from The Barbara Gaines Show, click “expand.”

The Barbara Gaines Show
January 9, 2026
5:47 mark

DAVID LETTERMAN: Let’s talk a little bit about Jimmy Kimmel.

BARBARA GAINES: Yeah, I love Jimmy Kimmel.

LETTERMAN: I love Jimmy Kimmel too. Here’s the thing, what people don’t understand is Jimmy Kimmel single-handedly brought the people at Disney and all of those other network television owners to their knees. Jimmy Kimmel single-handedly made them —

GAINES: He — he won a Critics Choice Award.

MARY BARKLEY: Yes, he did. Yeah.

LETTERMAN: — won a Critics Choice Award, made — made them seem and appeared to be the fools they are, and continues to call attention to the plight and — and also Seth Meyers, he’s very good.

GAINES: Right.

LETTERMAN: And I’m telling you, we’re running out of places where you hear these voices.

BARKLEY: Right.

LETTERMAN: And — and Stephen Colbert in that franchise, adios. [SCREEN WIPE] And let me just say one thing, if we had a — a — a president who was a Republican, I’m sorry, who was a Democrat, let’s just say if we had a president who was a Democrat and behaved the way this Republican President is behaving, Jimmy would be attacking the Democrat president just as much as he attacks.

GAINES: Yes, of course.

LETTERMAN: So it’s not like it’s all politically driven. It’s driven by the behavior of the person in the office.

BARKLEY: Yeah.

[SCREEN WIPE]

LETTERMAN: By the way, what about those idiots at CBS? The — the CBS News is a wreck.

BARKLEY: Yeah.

GAINES: Oh, they ruined it.

LETTERMAN: It’s just gone. CBS News for decades, going back to — 

GAINES: The Tiffany network

LETTERMAN: — World War II, before World War II — they would be — Ed Murrow would be broadcasting the blitz of London

GAINES: Right.

LETTERMAN: — from the rooftop of, of buildings in London for CBS Radio and it was that mentality that drove the integrity of CBS News that has been trampled on, pissed on, and eviscerated by these idiots that have taken it over.

GAINES: Yep.

LETTERMAN: And I’m at a point now where it’s — it really is hurting my feelings because I’m sick and tired of people saying, oh, wait till those midterms. Kids, we’re far downstream of the midterms having any effect on this.