David Letterman’s Netflix series debuts on the streaming service this Friday, and while we’d love to tell you how great it is, they’re not letting critics screen it in advance. (That’s not as distressing in television as it is in movies; Netflix and HBO, among others, frequently choose not to provide advance screeners, and Showtime kept the entire revival of Twin Peaks away from critics.) But they have supplied a brief clip from the first episode of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman – an interview with his first guest, President Barack Obama (in his first TV talk show appearance since leaving office), with some deeply #relatable talk about his “dad moves” on the dance floor:
The clip also gives us a sense of what the show will be: the kind of conversational interviews Letterman used to do, but in a more intimate and less formal setting (no set, no desks, empty stage) though still in front of a live studio audience; the show will also include field segments “bring Dave to locations far and wide, expressing his curiosity and desire to dig deeper on a specific topic related to the iconic guest featured in the episode,” according to Netflix. (Hopefully one of his iconic guests will bring up Taco Bell.) Future guests will include George Clooney, Malala Yousafzai, Jay-Z, Tina Fey, and Howard Stern.
The series premieres with the Obama interview Friday, January 12 on Netflix. Subsequent episodes will air monthly.