David Letterman will use tonight's installment of CBS' Late Show to weigh in (once again) on the Palin Family joke that prompted an angry response from the Alaska governor and a flurry of press coverage questioning whether the comedy-show host went too far. CBS has released the following excerpts from tonight's monologue (taped earlier today in New York):

"There was a joke that I told, and I thought I was telling it about the older daughter being at Yankee Stadium. And it was kind of a coarse joke. There's no getting around it, but I never thought it was anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure in fact that she is of legal age, 18. Yeah. But the joke really, in and of itself, can't be defended. The next day, people are outraged. They're angry at me because they said, 'How could you make a lousy joke like that about the 14-year-old girl who was at the ball game?' And I had, honestly, no idea that the 14-year-old girl, I had no idea that anybody was at the ball game except the Governor…."

"But I didn't, and now people are getting angry and they're saying, 'Well, how can you say something like that about a 14-year-old girl, and does that make you feel good to make those horrible jokes about a kid who's completely innocent, minding her own business,' and, turns out, she was at the ball game. I had no idea she was there."

Letterman went on to say that he's "never made jokes like this as long as we've been on the air, 30 long years" and said he understands why people may be upset. "So I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the Governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke. I'm sorry about it and I'll try to do better in the future."

More on David Letterman's apology:
Ken Tucker on David Letterman's apology: A sorry situation

CBS has ordered three more episodes of I Get That a Lot, its hidden camera series in which celebrities go undercover and work low-end jobs, fooling customers. The show's initial outing in April drew a surprising 10 million viewers. According to the Hollywood Reporter, "[CBS] might air the… specials quarterly and stunt cast with talent from other high-profile specials airing around the same time (for instance, casting all music artists for a Get That a Lot to air near the Grammys)."