 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Television and film production company |
| Genre | Entertainment |
| Founded | 1991; 34 years ago (1991)[1] |
| Founder | David Letterman |
| Headquarters | 30 Rockefeller Center,New York City,New York (1991–1993) ,Ed Sullivan Theater,New York, New York (1993–2015) 10696 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, California (2015–present) United States |
Key people | David Letterman (chairman) Rob Burnett (president andCEO) |
| Products | Late Night with David Letterman,Late Show with David Letterman,The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,Everybody Loves Raymond |
| Owner | David Letterman |
Number of employees | 70 (2007)[1] |
| Subsidiaries | Clear Entertainment (C.E. Music) B&B Entertainment |
Worldwide Pants Incorporated is an American television and film production company founded and owned by comedian and talk show hostDavid Letterman.
The company was formerly headquartered at theEd Sullivan Theater building inNew York City, but has since moved toLos Angeles following the ending of theLate Show with David Letterman.[2] The president andCEO is formerLate Show executive producerRob Burnett.Peter Lassally, a formerThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson andLate Show executive producer, was the senior vice-president until his retirement.
A predecessor company,Space Age Meats, produced Letterman's first television talk show,The David Letterman Show in 1980. This company was also credited with producingLate Night with David Letterman, produced in partnership withNBC andJohnny Carson'sCarson Productions from 1982 to 1990 (Carson would continue to be credited with production of that show until his retirement in 1992).[3]
Worldwide Pants' first production credit was forLate Night in 1991, shortly after its formation. The company, then known asWorldwide Pants Productions, shared a1991Peabody Award, for their ability to "take one of TV's most conventional and least inventive forms—the talk show—and infuse it with freshness and imagination."[4]
In 1993, the company produced two shows: one was the sitcomThe Building, starringBonnie Hunt, and the other was the new late night programLate Show with David Letterman, both onCBS. Although the former flopped, the latter went on to succeed for a 22-year run until 2015.[5] In 1995, Worldwide Pants launchedThe Late Late Show franchise, starting with one hosted byTom Snyder, then withCraig Kilborn, and then withCraig Ferguson. Worldwide Pants produced theseLate Late Show iterations until 2015.[6] Also that year, it teamed up withBonnie Hunt again to start outBonnie, which went on to last one season on the air onCBS.[7]
In 1996, Worldwide Pants went on to greater success in primetime with the launch ofEverybody Loves Raymond, which went on to be successful and critically acclaimed, went on for nine seasons.[8] In 1997, David Kissinger, who was senior vice president of comedy and drama series department ofWalt Disney Television, joined Worldwide Pants as vice president of the studio.[9]
A 2002Forbes article comments on the approach Letterman takes for Worldwide Pants television productions:[10]
The company produced its first film,Strangers with Candy, a prequel to the TV showof the same name. The film premiered at the2005Sundance Film Festival, within the "Park City at Midnight" category.Warner Independent Pictures subsequently signed up as North American distributor of the film, beforeThinkFilm acquired the rights from Warner, giving it a limited release in summer 2006. The film grossed slightly more than $2 million, on a $2 million production budget and $1.5 million prints and advertising budget.[11]
In April 2005 theSci-Fi Channel announced that Worldwide Pants would produce a half-hour animated ensemble comedy for the channel fromBrendon Small, calledBarbarian Chronicles. A subsequent interview with Small confirmed there were no plans to go through with the deal.[12]
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Production of new episodes of the company's two late-night CBS talk shows ceased on November 5, 2007, when the Worldwide Pants writers joined the strike against theAlliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), thetrade association of which Worldwide Pants is a member.
During the first part of the strike reruns of Worldwide Pants shows were aired. This changed when Worldwide Pants broke ranks with the AMPTP by negotiating an independent, interimcollective bargaining agreement with theWriters Guild of America in which Worldwide Pants essentially agreed to operate in accordance with the contract demands of the WGA for the duration of the labor dispute. The agreements automatically reverted to the final contract terms that the guild reached with the AMPTP at the end of the strike. The agreement allowed both theLate Show with David Letterman andThe Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson to return to the airwaves with their full writing staffs on January 2, 2008.
The agreement gave Worldwide Pants and CBS a perceived advantage over their rivals atNBC. The latter network was unable to make similar arrangements for its late night programming because NBC had retained control of production operations for bothThe Tonight Show with Jay Leno andLate Night with Conan O'Brien. Unlike CBS, NBC would have had to negotiate an agreement covering the entire network in order to have writers work on the two late night shows. NBC aired new episodes of its late night shows on the same night as CBS, but without writers. This meant, among other things, that Leno and O'Brien were unable to perform their traditionalmonologues without violating strike rules and were unable to secure the appearance of most celebrities, who refused to cross apicket line.[citation needed]
In October 2007, the media announced that Worldwide Pants would co-produce its first non-comedy project, a documentary about young adults running for public office.[13] The documentary, titledThe Youngest Candidate, was written and directed by Jason Pollock and premiered July 2008 at theTraverse City Film Festival.[14]
In March 2008, Eco Media announced a "content partnership" with Worldwide Pants to "create original, unscripted, environment-related content, in the style ofThe Late Show remote segments, for television and Internet distribution."[15]
In 2008 Worldwide Pants signed a product placement deal withFord to promote theFord Flex duringThe Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, using a series of weekly custom-written skits in which Ferguson played the leader of a band riding in a Flex as they traveled fromLos Angeles International Airport to the CBS Studio.[16]
In April 2010, Worldwide Pants started Clear Entertainment, a.k.a. C.E. Music, arecord label and announced the signing of their first bandRunner Runner, a pop-punk group fromHuntington Beach,California.[17]
In April 2012, CBS announced that it would begin co-producingThe Late Late Show with Worldwide Pants, part of a deal that included extending Ferguson's contract until 2014.[18]
In October 2012, Worldwide Pants and B&B Productions—a subsidiary of Worldwide Pants created byRob Burnett andJon Beckerman—announced they had secured the rights to adaptJonathan Evison's novelThe Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving asa feature film.[19]
The company's principal property,Late Show with David Letterman, wrapped up production in 2015. Its production ofThe Late Late Show also ended onceJames Corden's version of the franchiselaunched in March 2015, though Worldwide Pants did continue to produce the show while it was fronted by a series of guest hosts between the departure ofCraig Ferguson at the end of 2014 and Corden's premiere. The company is not producing eitherThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert orThe Late Late Show with James Corden, both of which are owned outright by CBS.[20]
The company didn't shut down with Letterman's retirement from late night television; however, its future direction was unclear at the time of Letterman's finale. CEO Rob Burnett said at the time ofLate Show's finale: "I honestly don't know what the future of Worldwide Pants will be... We've built a brand here. There is value. Ultimately it will be to Dave to decide what he wants to do with that."[21] Burnett indicated that he will likely step down as CEO in order to focus on his own projects once matters dealing withLate Show's winding down are concluded. The company moved out of the 13 story office building above theEd Sullivan Theater, its home for 22 years, and relocated to Los Angeles.[20]
In early 2017, Worldwide Pants won a lawsuit over royalties.[22]
In an interview withNew York magazine published in March 2017, Letterman said of the company: "Worldwide Pants is now on pause. Years ago, I wanted Worldwide Pants to be an ongoing organism whereby we could continue to employ people and develop material. In the meantime, things changed out from under us. It was explained to me that that production model doesn’t hold up anymore. So Worldwide Pants ran out of steam for lack of opportunity. But we are trying to put it back together. It would be fun not to be involved in traditional ABC, NBC, CBS television. There’s a billion different places to put something now."[23]
Due to its ownership ofLate Show with David Letterman and various iterations ofThe Late Late Show, Worldwide Pants is also the owner of a considerable library of archival footage from both programs which, according to Burnett, "is extremely valuable if handled correctly".[21] Worldwide Pants made excerpts fromLate Show andLate Night (licensed from NBC) available onYouTube in 2022, coinciding withLate Night's launch 40 years ago.[24]
Worldwide Pants is currently the co-producer withRadicalMedia of Letterman'sNetflix seriesMy Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman.
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