LOS ANGELES  — With David Letterman retiring, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is wasting no time trying to restore the balance of late-night talk to the West Coast.
Within hours of Letterman’s announcement Thursday, Garcetti sent an open letter to CBS president Leslie Moonves, encouraging him to relocate Letterman’s New York-based “Late Show” to LA.
Garcetti wrote he wants “to encourage you to bring CBS’ next late night show to our city — the entertainment capital of the world.”
He adds that he’s “aggressively seeking to encourage more production here in Los Angeles” by providing incentives to make the city more appealing.
Southern California lost a decades-old local late-night staple two months ago when Jimmy Fallon took over “The Tonight Show” from Jay Leno and moved the production from Burbank to New York.