{"id":2544,"date":"2015-05-05T13:38:25","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T13:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/?p=2544"},"modified":"2015-05-05T13:38:25","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T13:38:25","slug":"i-want-to-work-for-david-letterman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2015\/05\/05\/i-want-to-work-for-david-letterman\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I Want to Work For David Letterman’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Paige<\/em> — For Ryan Smith \u201903, it was just a thought one day on the way to class.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to work for David Letterman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith, an Emmy Award-winning field producer for CBS News, has done that and more. Not only did he serve as a page for a year with the \u201cLate Show with David Letterman\u201d after receiving his master\u2019s degree at Columbia University, but he was also part of a large team that prepped last night\u2019s 90-minute special, \u201cDavid Letterman: A Life on Television,\u201d which aired on CBS.<\/p>\n

The journey into television has been an amazing experience for Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was at Wabash, I had no bigger hero than Letterman,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was the reason I went into television. I applied and was lucky enough to become a page for the Late Show. I\u2019m very, very fortunate because at Wabash and at CBS, I\u2019ve been able to stand on the shoulders of giants and live out those dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ryan<\/a>
Ryan Smith ’03 is one of the lucky few to sit at David Letterman’s desk at the Ed Sullivan Theater.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Working on the \u201cLate Show\u201d helped Smith learn how a television show is produced, connect daily with audience members, and get a sense of what needed to be accomplished. Those skills translated well when working with the senior staff at CBS News in getting a show to air.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fascinating to watch others do their jobs,\u201d said Smith, who majored in political science with a Classics minor. \u201cWhen I moved over to CBS news, I still had that sense of what needed to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith credits the expectations that his Wabash professors had for him as one of the reasons he\u2019s felt comfortable in television news. The mindset of accepting new challenges; that no day or story is quite the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so lucky to have professors that challenged me,\u201d said Smith. \u201cI was always driven to deliver for them. I owe so much to the team at Wabash who always expected the most out of me, therefore, I began to expect the most out of myself. I\u2019m able to meet changing demands head on because of those expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Letterman\u2019s late night career comes to a close after more than three decades, Smith is proud that his television experiences \u2013 both with the legendary host and CBS News \u2013 have come full circle on the Letterman retrospective.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving been at CBS News for almost a decade and to circle back to where it started for me, I almost couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d he concluded. \u201cI had the opportunity to be a part of a great team and pay respect to a living legend. I am very fortunate to have learned from the best and to work with the best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard Paige — For Ryan Smith \u201903, it was just a thought one day on the way to class. \u201cI want to work for David Letterman.\u201d Smith, an Emmy Award-winning field producer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/05\/Smith_letterman.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2544"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2549,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions\/2549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}