David Letterman's first choice for his successor wasn't Stephen Colbert

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published 29 April 2015

In an interview with The New York Times, David Letterman revealed that while he approves of Stephen Colbert as the new Late Show host, he didn't choose him to be his successor.

When asked whether he was involved in the decision, Letterman responded that he had no role in choosing his successor. It's "not my show," he said. "When we sign off, we're out of business with CBS." He added that although he wasn't consulted, he did have some ideas for a new host in mind:

I always thought Jon Stewart would have been a good choice. And then Stephen. And then I thought, well, maybe this will be a good opportunity to put a black person on, and it would be a good opportunity to put a woman on. Because there are certainly a lot of very funny women that have television shows everywhere. So that would have made sense to me as well. [The New York Times]

Other topics Letterman addressed in the interview include his sex scandal, for which he admits CBS "would have had good reason" to fire him, and his plans for when his Late Show run ends, which include attending the Indianapolis 500. Check out the full interview over at The New York Times.