David Letterman was back on stage at the Ed Sullivan Theater last night. The host publicly apologized to his wife and staff for having sex with women who've worked on his show. Our Alina Cho has the report.

[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/10/02/am.intv.oneil.art.jpg caption="Tom O'Neil says Letterman's admission would not be damaging to his audience."]

David Letterman's dramatic admission on television that he had sex with staff members started with an uncomfortable moment when he said he was the victim of an extortion plot. His audience seemed to think he was joking but the case is no laughing matter.  What does this mean for his image?

Tom O’Neil, senior editor of In Touch Weekly spoke with Christine Romans on CNN's "American Morning" Friday. Below is an edited transcript of the interview.

Christine Romans: It was nine minutes of television, there was some laughing from the audience at, what I would say would be, inappropriate parts. Maybe they didn't realize that it was a real confession happening here. What do you make of what happened there on Letterman last night?

Tom O’Neil: It was done in typical Letterman style where we were all put ill at ease while watching this. Was he joking when he talked about the terrible creepy things he did? At first it didn’t seem that way it seemed as if he was really confessing to us, then he built this like a good comic act to crescendo and then you think maybe this is not a big deal. Look, David Letterman just got married in March. For 30 years he was a single man, if this was consensual sex with his co-workers, maybe that’s not so bad. But we also have to wonder, is it that terrible that it gets into areas of sexual harassment?

FULL POST