David Letterman’s ‘Late Show’ Set Tossed In Dumpster Day After Last Show

David Letterman hadn’t been out of The Late Show‘s studio in New York City 24 hours when crews were spotted tossing set pieces into a dumpster.

David Letterman Set Gets Trashed

On Wednesday night, Letterman took to his desk atop The Late Show studio stage for the last time following a 33-year-run. Letterman’s farewell show included a sendoff from five U.S. presidents, and a Top Ten list delivered by Alec Baldwin, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Barbra Walters, Bill Murray and more.

The nostalgia of his colleagues and his enduring fans was apparently not shared by CBS, which had a crew breaking down The Late Show set at the Ed Sullivan Theater Thursday afternoon .

“I can’t believe they’re just demolishing the whole thing. It’s shocking,” Letterman fan Stephanie Strausz told the New York Post. “It should go in the Smithsonian, not the dumpster.”

While seats and the blue stage would be expected to be sent to the trash heap, it came as a bit more of a shock that bits of the iconic bridge that stretched behind Letterman’s desk was also headed to the dumpster. But, some of the set pieces from Letterman’s Late Show set were saved from the same fate.

Letterman’s desk was wrapped in bubble wrap and headed to the museum in Washington. A large whole section of the George Washington Bridge replica was salvaged too, as well as band leader Paul Shaffer‘s furniture and instruments.