Within weeks after the show was canceled, Westinghouse Broadcasting was talking about an offer for a syndicated show. NBC acted swiftly, signing Letterman to a holding contract. The contract stated that NBC would have to pay Letterman a million-dollars as a penalty if it didn't come up with a new show for him before the contract ended.
Once the show was canceled, Merrill Markoe came up with one idea because she and Dave loved their dog Bob so much. Merrill thought she could make a segment out of the stupid things people do with their pets. She called it Stupid Pet Tricks.
"The David Letterman Show" lasted nineteen weeks on the air . Letters poured into NBC condemning the cancellation. College kids hitched across the country with petitions to save him. A group of housewives from Long Island tried to block traffic in Manhattan in protest. The show won two Emmy Awards.
The program ran 90 minutes for the first six weeks, and was shortened to 60 minutes beginning on 4 August 1980 (the last 12 weeks).
Merril Markoe, the head writer, was forced, thanks to the last minute resignation, to take over as producer, a job she had never done in her life. Nobody on the show even knew how to find cue cards to write on, so they used enormous pieces of cardboard. The show stumbled on air in June 1980.