Nearly one-third of Americans say they are less likely to watch “Late Show” host David Letterman following the funnyman’s admission that he has had affairs with women who work on his CBS show, according to a poll released today.
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A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 29 percent said they are less likely to watch the show after Letterman admitted on Thursday that he was the target of an extortion plot connected to an affair he had with staffer Stephanie Birkitt.
Just five percent said that Letterman’s disclosure of sexual misbehavior makes them more likely to watch the show.
A whopping 63 percent said it has no impact on their decision to watch the show.
Forty-two percent of adults still have at least a somewhat favorable opinion of Letterman, but that’s down eight points from May, while 46 percent view him unfavorably.
Fans waiting outside Letterman’s studio yesterday seemed to be forgiving.
“It’s unfortunate but Dave’s handled it just how he should have. He came out clean, told everybody what he thought. He’s a good guy and we’re all people,” said Cliff Crumpton, an audience member yesterday from Texas.
“The American people are more forgiving with going with the honest approach and showing their human side and the fact that we’re all vulnerable,” said Higl Higgins, another audience member.
Letterman handled the scandal last night with a mixture of somber and humorous moments.
After running onto the set to huge applause, and making jokes about hate mail, Letterman mentioned how chilly it was inside his house over the weekend.
Then he made a point of interrupting his own jokes about Bill Clinton and Eliot Spitzer before getting to the punch lines.
Then came the meat in the meal: “It did not occur to me last week when I was discussing having sex with women on the show” that they’d be hounded by the press.
“So I would just like to set the record straight. No, I’m not having sex with these women,” à la Bill Clinton’s infamous quote. He continued, “Those episodes are in the past. So my apologies to them for being browbeaten and humiliated … I’m terribly sorry that I put the staff in that position. Inadvertently, I just wasn’t thinking ahead.”