‘The Late Show with Neil Patrick Harris”?
It could have been, says Harris, who just wrapped his run in the long-running CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother.”
Harris told Sirius/XM’s Howard Stern on Wednesday that he was approached by CBS execs to replace David Letterman, who’s announced he’s retiring from hosting “The Late Show” next year (the job went to Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert).
Harris said Les Moonves and Nina Tassler “called me in and sat me down and asked if [‘The Late Show’] was something I’d be interested in doing,” Harris told Stern. “In that instance, I felt like I knew what my skillsets were and I kind of knew what it is that I wanted to do [after ‘HIMYM’ ended] . . . so I was surprised he pitched me that idea.”
In addition to his run on “HIMYM,” Harris has hosted the Emmy Awards and Tony Awards multiple times.
He told Stern that he’s not interested in a “structured” late-night show. “I think I would get bored of the repetition fast, and the structure of it is so set,” he said. “I don’t have any interest in doing monologue, commercial, sketch, guest, guest, guest, musical act, good night.”
Harris did say, however, that he would be interested in perhaps hosting a variety show of some sort. “I liked this weekly variety thing,” he said. “I think if it’s weekly, and people really want to see it, and you trust that there’s a lot of really great s- -t on there, then you’re gonna get the guests to want to come on there.”
He added that, with a weekly show, “you’d have more time to prep for stuff, you could pre-tape stuff that would be really exciting, you could flesh it out more.”
Letterman has yet to announce his retirement date, but it’s expected he will continue to host “The Late Show” through the end of next season.