No-Audience Hurricane Sandy Shows on Letterman, Oct. 29 & 30, 2012 

I cannot believe they actually did a show, during Hurricane Sandy. Priceless.

No crowd reactions, I thought this was Jimmy Fallon for a moment

Hey I love all the old Letterman stuff you do a great job of editing and collating the footage. You are really doing a service for humanity and in my opinion your uploads are an example of RU-vid at its best. I especially love the exact airdates being included as I can think back to whatever the heck I was doing in 1987 or 1994 or whatever.

Thank you for posting these!! Missing Dave and the gang!!

Keep em coming Don!

This reminds me so much of the Dan Le Batard show, and why I got so into it after Dave retired. This show proved how great a host Dave actually was. Without the audience, it's amazing how similar a feel the Le Batard Show with Stugotz has to this.

Who knew, 7½ years before Colbert would have to, like all shows stop having a live audience in studio, because of course, of the pandemic...crazy.

I've actually grown quite fond of this Late Night format, especially when in the capable hands of the right host. Maher, Oliver, and Meyers were standouts, excelling in the format. I believe Dave would've nailed it.

For the life of me I can't figure out how they got home since there was no subway for 11 days and no driving and it wouldn't have been safe for them to fly by helicopter or plane or even probably get to one. I remember them saying on TV to stay with someone cause the power could go out or some other emergency, so I took the subway that evening to my friends apt. and was stranded there for 12 days and spent my last dime it seemed at the grocery store which was I think the only place open.

Kudos to Dave for doing his job despite the storm but this is kind of painful to watch or even listen to. I would have been okay with them showing a repeat.

22:42 name of song? Sounds like a song.

The one thing NYC could not shut down . . . . . . . Dave.

CAVID-19, you say?

After Sandy and Katrina, 9-11, and so much more... Dave was there for us for 35 years. The only other late night host I would enjoy is Conan... and he got the shaft... It's great to see this again.

Don - your timing is impeccable.

Shout out to Paul for pulling his weight throughout all this - never failed as a much needed sidekick!

These were great shows - reminds me of watching Tom Snyder and all you'd hear is the crew cackling in the background

The funny thing is most of us in the tri state couldn’t watch this because the power was out. Great to see what I missed.

Dave was always such a hard worker. Friday’s, holidays, disasters, we could always count on him to be in studio. 🙂

Imagine if they did a bit where they cut to the empty seats but Chris Elliot is all the way at the back. Enthusiastic Audience Guy?

Here’s Dave just mailing it in and still funnier than 2 Jimmie’s and a Stephen.

I remember listening to the weather outside and being all wrapped up on the couch with my dog watching this show. I was scared but more comforted knowing Dave & Paul were going through it with us. My husband was sleeping like a baby listening to the storm.

Timely and much appreciated. Dave was the master of unusual situations.

The shot of Dave, Paul and Denzel in the bleachers is great.

Immensely enjoyed these - Thanks Don!!! And let me say this - boy how I miss this show...

Great show! Music during commercials was so much better than current late night shows!

i love how this show without an audoence was a precursor to those late night shows during the covid lockdowns

Best part of this is that there are no audience trying to clap along with the music.

Thank you for sharing these. I live on Staten Island and I was preoccupied with the hurricane and not having any power during these broadcasts. I never knew these even existed before!

Did you work for Letterman at some point? How do you have this _massive_ archive of footage? I appreciate what you do my friend. I never watched Letterman when I was younger because I was ignorant but now I am catching up!

Seeing this shows how great Dave would've been during the Pandemic

Didn't need an audience, didn't need a band, didn't even need guests or anything else, same great show and just the best to ever do it . Classic Dave, Pants Forever!

Funny to think back on where you were during times like this. I was in the national guard sleeping in a gymnasium as these were being filmed. Good times.

Harks back to the origin of the show when they did inventive stuff like hosting the show from the Midwest and while Dave waited home for the cable guy to come.

Dave is still hilarious with no audience and well past his prime, amazing.

Just finally watching these two. Dave truly is the powerhouse of late night comedy. Don, you truly are a treasure and doing us a great favor. I appreciate you and love your effort. It means so much to me that you are sharing your footage and archives I hope everything is going well for you and your loved ones during this spooky time. Stay well!

43:23 That band is absolutely fantastic.

Don you’re really doing the Lord’s work

I could have used the laughs when the storm was going on, but the power was out. Pretty amazing to look back on this now.

Hey don. Do you got the blizzard of 1996 episodes too? Those had limited people in the croud

letterman and paul should start a podcast where they talk for 2 hours

Only Dave can pull it off in an empty studio !!

I’d rather watch David Letterman with no audience and bad jokes than anything today.

The greatest city in the world 🌎🗽 OMG, Bloomberg trying to speak Spanish!!! I forgot about that! Hilarious.

I used to recieve weekly emails from Michael McIntee recapping the shows of the week

Thanks for posting, I hadn't seen these shows.

Dave and Paul should come back to entertain us through our quarantine time!

That Paul Banks song, and that version of it in particular, really stands above. I come back here to watch it all the time. It was the perfect tone for that night. What a moment.

What a great episode

7:06 - Too bad they didn't have the foresight to borrow Geoff Peterson from The Late Late Show, lol.

Timely post. These clips are great, thanks for posting

This is wonderful. Thank you for posting.

Paul Shaffer doing Windy 😂 I lived in WV Yes we get snow We have great ski slopes

Very nice hearing Paul and the band in this pure form, without the noise from the audience.

I forgot about these. After Dave, Craig Ferguson was best at audience-free shows

This is one if the last episodes that I remember watching live. Everything else I dvr'd, but for some reason I was still up and had to watch.

Dave used to be a weather man, he knows a lot

So they just stayed there during the storm?

I remember this week...what troopers!

We get the weather man Dave from back in the day here lol

8:20 Alan showing up late lol

I love how Paul just shouts the punchlines.

Dave going into weather forecast mode.

Wow. So Flight was the big movie coming out. Nice. That movie was So Unbelievably Good!! One of Denzel's best! Hurricane Sandy. Damn. We went through it with that one. Rest in Peace to the one's we lost.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but Dave did both a commercial-free episode and a show at 4:00 am to get away with doing a Friday show?

I love Dave...he's so cool 😁

True story. I actually booked to see Letterman on these days back when i was visiting New York from the UK in 2012. I had been looking forward to seeing Letterman for years, and then it was cancelled :D I did get to see the outside of The Ed Sullivan Theater, but that was it :D

I was just thinking about how he would have handled covid, I might have seen this, might have not, but he's the original.

It's something now looking back, Paul really isn't a very good singer..a great musician, definitely

It’s funny how Dave keeps making fun of himself for how unfunny the show is, but it’s actually hilarious. Ha ha.

Dave is the GOAT.

Incredible!

Would love to see the writers strike shows. Thx

Thank you for all this:)

Maaaaan u the fkn dude u r posting very classic stuff here thanks for sharing!!!!!

Props to Denzel for showing up. Let's be real folks. The Hurricane as a guest during the hurricane. Paul Shaffer also playing Bob Dylan's Hurricane.

It's the letterman covid shows 😂

Dangling Crane . ..Hmm. Good name Dave. Thanks👍

I actually watched these

~ 20:57 I like it better without audience, never mind laugh track

We had no ceiling left this night! In Cleveland.

Absolutely perfectly timed upload

The opening shots of the city in the intro were hilarious

This one time he did it without an audience was way funnier than all of Stephan‘s shows without audiences

With the whole coronavirus deal, we'll see a lot of shows like that.

The young man Denzel refers to is actor James Badge Dale who's great in tons of major roles in Flight, The Departed, World War Z, and Rescue Me - among many other roles.

58:35 THE hug - wonderful touch!

These are quite surreal. Kinda like the blackout shows of 2003

WATCHED Oct. 29th 2/8/21

damn denzel left dave hanging

Tough crowd.

I will need to check out Andrew Bird! He impressed me!

ANy chance of an upload of Ferguson's shows during the storm?

Incredible. #perspective

Denzel’s entrance is what brought me back😂😂😂

Man, they really cake the makeup on Letterman. They overdo it.

I was in NY then - I'd have come if I'd known.

He should have had Uecker sitting in the last row.

It would be really fun to see a clip show of "cue card boy" Todd Seda. He sometimes played the "New Intern" but pops up every now and then like he did on this show, holding up the Top Ten jokes.

Of course Denzel had to ham it up