Judd Apatow Pens Earnest Essay About Importance Of Late-Night TV: “The Hosts We Have Now … Are Going To Fight Until Their Last Breath”

Writer, producer and director Judd Apatow penned an earnest essay about the importance of late-night television — and safeguarding it in the American consciousness — as last week saw the shuttering of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and end of the CBS franchise begun by David Letterman.

In a tribute for Rolling Stone, the Freaks and Geeks developer outlined his love for late-night as an institution, which was born out of hours spent watching a plethora of hosts throughout middle school and high school.

“Probably the highlight of my career was working for Garry Shandling on his talk-show satire The Larry Sanders Show,” he wrote. “Garry had observed all of the backstage machinations of that workplace, and he thought it was the perfect metaphor for life. The curtain and what’s behind the curtain, the way we all put on a face and present ourselves one way when we’re actually feeling something completely different inside. It was a way to talk about human frailty in a hilarious manner.”

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