Editing Late Night with David Letterman (section)

===Syndication===
On September{{spaces}}30, 1991, [[A&E (TV channel)|A&E]], a [[Cable television in the United States|U.S. cable channel]] [[A&E Networks|partly owned]] by [[General Electric]]—then the parent company of NBC—began broadcasting  repeats of ''Late Night'' in an effort of monetizing the show's vast accumulation of old episodes. The repeats aired for less than a year, until July{{spaces}}24, 1992. The [[Broadcast syndication|syndication]] deal had been brokered without Letterman's knowledge, and he frequently made his displeasure of the arrangement known on-air, feeling that having reruns broadcast five nights a week, earlier in the evening on cable, diluted the value of the nightly first-run shows on NBC—fearing people would not be willing to stay up late for the first-run if they could watch repeats of the program at an earlier time. Because of Letterman's opposition, the syndication run was ended early and not attempted again until after he had left NBC.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.courant.com/1991/09/01/cronkite-crystal-and-coppola-on-cable-networks/|work=The Hartford Courant|title=CRONKITE, CRYSTAL AND COPPOLA ON CABLE NETWORKS|date=September 1991 }}</ref>

In November 1993, [[E! Entertainment Television]] purchased syndication rights to ''Late Night with David Letterman''.<ref>{{cite news |title=CABLE CHANNEL BUYS RIGHTS TO OLD LETTERMAN SHOWS |url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1993-11-08-9311080261-story.html |access-date=October 13, 2021 |work=[[Orlando Sentinel]] |publisher=[[Tribune Publishing]] |date=November 8, 1993}}</ref> The network broadcast repeats of complete shows from various years five days per week from 1993 until 1996. Then, [[Trio (TV network)|Trio: Popular Arts Television]] (owned by NBC/Vivendi Universal Entertainment) picked up reruns and showed them from 2002 until the channel went off the air in 2005.

A number of programs were sold by [[GoodTimes Entertainment]] in 1992–93. These episodes were stripped of the series theme, open and close. No DVD release is currently scheduled (GoodTimes went bankrupt in 2005; the company's assets are now owned by [[Gaiam]], which does not typically distribute general-interest programming). In February 2022, through a licensing agreement between NBC and [[Worldwide Pants]] and coinciding with the 40th anniversary of ''Late Night'''s premiere, Letterman opened his official [[YouTube]] channel, which contains clips of Letterman's ''Late Night'' and his previous morning and subsequent ''Late Show'' programs.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2022/02/david-letterman-late-night-anniversary-youtube-channel-1234925070/|title=Watch David Letterman's Return to 'Late Night' For Show's 40th Anniversary As Trove Of Classic Clips Drops On YouTube|first=Tom|last=Tapp|date=2 February 2022}}</ref>