David Letterman is FOR SURE retiring in 2015 and Stephen Colbert is FOR SURE taking over for him on The Late Show.
But there has been a lot of talk over what happened leading up to that announcement and whether or not Mr. Colbert was CBS’s first choice for a permanent late night replacement host!
Like, maybe they wanted Neil Patrick Harris instead?
Those rumors started when NPH went on Howard Stern on Wednesday morning and spilled that he had a sushi lunch with Eye Network CEO Les Moonves about the possibility of taking over at 11:30 BEFORE Colbert got named as Letterman’s successor!
But Moonves is telling a different side of that story today, suggesting Neil wasn’t as big a frontrunner as he might have thought!
Les explained:
“Neil Patrick Harris has been a member of our family, and I├óΓé¼Γäóm very close to him personally. So after Neil was done, we said: ├óΓé¼╦£All right, Neil, what do you want to do? What do you want to do? What are the possibilities? Want to come do a new series with us?├óΓé¼Γäó And we knew probably Letterman and 12:30 might be open. [I asked], ├óΓé¼╦£What do you think about that?├óΓé¼Γäó So it was a very general topic. So I wouldn├óΓé¼Γäót say we didn├óΓé¼Γäót talk about it, but he wasn├óΓé¼Γäót offered it, per se.├óΓé¼┬¥
Well now wait a second…
If you bring a guy up for a meeting, serve him a five-star sushi lunch and then ask him if he’s interested in hosting a late night show for you, that’s pretty damn close to offering him the job!
Sure, you didn’t push him a contract and ask him to sign on the dotted line but had Neil said yes, would you really NOT have gotten a deal done??
Semantics, really.
But what’s in the past is in the past. Let’s instead focus on the future and what you can still do, Leslie!
Like sign NPH to host his own variety show every week on CBS!
He’s up for it!
Are you??
