Sun Blogs: The Pop Culture Pill
The Genius of Confession: Letterman Beats Him to the Punch
October 13, 2009 - 11:00pmLast week David Letterman exposed himself for cheating on his wife with a CBS Late Show staff member, but also in a shocking twist of events as a victim of blackmail by another member of the CBS family. The alleged culprit? CBS News Producer, Robert “Joe” Halderman. He may not be having the best days since the incident, but Letterman’s show is doing back-flips and cartwheels in the ratings. After a long-standing battle with Jay Leno in nightly viewer volume, Letterman finally pulled ahead of the big chin.
Watch Letterman’s on-air confession
But just like a scatter plot graph showing direct relationships between axes X and Y that I’ve faked understanding since 3rd grade, correlation here definitely implies causation.
In the grand tradition of “rubber-necking” and humanity’s innate desire to watch others squirm, people can’t help but watch Letterman to see not only if he’ll admit to anything else, and just to see how he’s holding up. Despite how badly they may feel for his previously camera-hidden wife, they thrive off of watching David cope with his family and legal battles.
Even though he’s been married, however unhappily, for some time, Letterman has a longstanding niche in TV culture as one of America’s bachelors. Hidden from paparazzi, his wife may as well have not been real. But Letterman has capitalized on the scandal in his candid and “hinky” (to quote Letterman) confession to adultery, and has flipped the issue on its side. He has not only gained a status as a CBS playboy, but also as the real victim in the situation.
Whether his private life was previously any of our business or not is negligible, because Letterman has turned the issue into one of his show’s shticks. Just like watching the next episode of Gossip Girl, people will continue to watch Letterman to find out how this plot unfolds.