Peter Lassally started out working for Johnny Carson in the 1970's as the associate producer of "The Tonight Show.", and rose to Executive Producer with Fred De Cordova by 1992. When Carson retired in 1992, Lassally moved to be Executive Producer of David Letterman's NBC night time show "Late Night", co-owned by Carson Productions at the time. He moved with Letterman to CBS to the "Late Show" in 1993. He was later replaced by Letterman writer Rob Burnett as Executive Producer of Late Show.