David Letterman is making his return to the small screen. Two years after signing off as host of The Late Show, the longest-serving host in United States late-night television history is heading a new Netflix series.
The yet-to-be-titled six hour-long episode series will premiere in 2018 and will feature pre-taped interviews with guests, as well as show Letterman exploring different subjects outside of the studio.
“I feel excited and lucky to be working on this project for Netflix,” Letterman said in a statement, via The Hollywood Reporter. “Here’s what I have learned, if you retire to spend more time with your family, check with your family first.”
As for why he is coming out of retirement, Letterman, who is dad of 13-year-old son Harry with wife Regina Lasko, told the New York Times that he wants to return to his passion. “Everybody would come to me and say, ‘What do you want to do?’” he told the NYT. “And I kept saying, ‘Well, jeez, I did what I wanted to do.’”
Letterman added that the new series “feels like exactly what I want at this stage of my life.”
As for who he will be interviewing on the show, Letterman told the NYT that his plan is to “write down a list of people that you know you’re not going to be able to talk to, and those are the people that I want to try to get to talk to.”
The comedian said his farewell on the late night show in May 2015. In the year following his departure, Letterman was spotted vacationing with his family while sporting casual clothes and a bushy white beard — a stark difference from his suits and clean-shaven face on the air.
