Palin Controversy Could Actually Help Letterman’s Career
More evidence to suggest that twits like Letterman are better off just being ignored.
NEW YORK – Sarah Palin would no doubt be horrified by the idea, but there’s a chance she could become the same boon to David Letterman’s career that Hugh Grant was to Jay Leno’s.
Grant’s 1995 appearance on NBC’s “Tonight” show after a prostitution arrest, where Leno famously asked “what were you thinking?,” was seen in retrospect as a turning point in the late-night race. It drew a huge audience and propelled Leno to the top of the ratings, a spot he would not relinquish.
Letterman did not court last week’s battle with Palin, who called him “perverted” for making a joke about her daughter getting “knocked up” by New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez, and he said in retrospect the remark was in poor taste.
Palin rebuffed his invitations to appear on the show, but that might not matter. The story had the effect of turning the attention to Letterman at a critical time, during the second week of his new competition with Leno’s replacement, Conan O’Brien.
“It will be interesting to see if that can be maintained or whether it is one of those temporary things,” said Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University.
I’m not sure that Letterman cracking joke about impregnating underage girls is the same as Leno’s (obvious) question to Hugh Grant about why a movie star would need to hire a hooker, but even so. Palin is a polarizing figure, and the more her supporters demonize Letterman the more Palin’s enemies are going to tune in. Plus a whole lot more people who may not even know who Palin is but tune in anyway to see what’s going on.
In the wake of this controversy I see a lot of people talking about Letterman getting fired, etc. Frankly, the worst thing you could do to David Letterman is to a) never watch his show and b) stop talking about him. Don’t pour gas on the fire with boycott campaigns and efforts to get him fired. If you don’t like the idiot (and I never have) just ignore him.
Celebrities thrive on attention. If you don’t give them attention, most of them end up having to get real jobs.
