Letterman Breaks From Routine

David Letterman publicly and emotionally grappled Monday with the proper role for a late-night comedy show in the face of the tragedy that occurred in New York and Washington last week, stressing that he would have to feel his way and begging for indulgence from viewers and fans.

Breaking form to address his grief and bewilderment regarding the terrorist attack on New York, Letterman received considerable praise for his performance, though CBS News anchor Dan Rather was subject to some criticism in journalistic circles for certain statements he made as a guest on the program.

Letterman stressed that he was still struggling to find the right balance and would take the show a day at a time.

“I think he handled it very well.... I thought it was meaningful,” said producer George Schlatter, whose credits include “Laugh-In” and the American Comedy Awards, regarding Letterman. Schlatter noted that comics such as Letterman, Jay Leno and Bill Maher are intelligent people with a serious side who convey information to viewers in a way more traditional sources are not always able to.

“The great thing about a comedian is that you have your hands down,” Schlatter said, adding that audiences “don’t feel like they’re going to be lectured to.”

Rather, meanwhile--in what was no doubt a stunning sight for many--twice broke down in tears while discussing those lost, the heroics of New York’s firefighters and police, and how even the meaning of lyrics to the song “America the Beautiful” would be forever changed.

When Rather apologized for letting his guard down, Letterman responded that while the anchorman was a professional, he was also human. Regis Philbin followed, and both he and Letterman strove for a somewhat lighter tone.

Rather’s appearance spurred some debate not for his emotional reaction but what some characterized as a simplistic explanation to Letterman’s questions regarding the historical roots of terrorism and what prompted the attack.

“It’s a sign of the strange times in which we live when Regis Philbin is the voice of reason and Dan Rather is emotional,” said Al Tompkins, who teaches broadcast writing and ethics to journalists at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Tompkins said he could not criticize Rather for what was “an honest display of human emotion” but did express concern regarding what could be perceived as “almost cheerleading” by the anchor for the Bush administration and its handling of the situation.

“We have to be very careful right now [as journalists],” Tompkins said. “We would all do well to follow the normal mantra of Dan Rather, and that is, ‘Report the facts.’ ... The viewers are going to need for us to be as cleareyed as possible.”

Both Letterman and fellow CBS late-night host Craig Kilborn, whose program originates from Los Angeles, dropped their regular formats, as Letterman opened his program seated at his desk. Letterman said that New York residents could feel the loss of their fellow citizens and that he decided to return Monday in response to New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s plea for people to get back to work.

ABC’s “Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher” was also back on the air Monday for the first time since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The show opened with host Maher seated onstage, asking, “Can we change?”

In lieu of a monologue, Maher delivered a sort of sermon, asking such questions as “Which part of our polarized human mind is going to win out?” Maher was at his most provocative when questioning government priorities, noting that while a Hollywood producer gets stopped in an airport for drug possession, terrorists manage to slip past security--a reference to the arrest earlier this year of Aaron Sorkin, the creator and executive producer of NBC’s “The West Wing.”

Maher suggested in an interview that he was seeking guests with more gravitas than typically come from the entertainment world. One chair sat empty--a symbolic gesture in honor of frequent guest Barbara Olson, the conservative political commentator who was killed on one of the flights to L.A. last week. With NBC’s “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” preempted by late-night news coverage Monday, “Late Show With David Letterman” delivered its highest rating since Aug. 23, 2000--the night of the original “Survivor” finale--based on preliminary data from 51 major cities monitored by Nielsen Media Research. The program was watched in 6.7% of homes in those cities, nearly doubling the show’s Monday night audience levels during the last year.

Prime-time ratings for last week, meanwhile, were delayed due to Nielsen difficulties processing data. Because the service exists primarily to measure viewing of programs for the benefit of advertisers who buy time within various shows, ratings will not be available for much of the week, when the networks ran nonstop news programming without commercial interruptions.

Ratings estimates were released for Sunday’s installment of HBO’s World War II miniseries “Band of Brothers.” The program drew an estimated 7.3 million viewers--still high for programming on the pay service, but down about 25% versus the heavily promoted premiere the week before.

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Times staff writer Paul Brownfield contributed to this story.