David Letterman questions why CBS did not hire woman to replace him on ‘The Late Show’

Ever since retiring from “The Late Show” over a year ago, David Letterman has not been one to spend time in the spotlight. Instead, he’s relegated more of his time to being a father, growing that crazy Santa Claus beard, and turning up in random places. What he hasn’t done a lot of as of late are interviews.

However, the comic (in the most casual setting possible) chose to sit down with Tom Brokaw on Sunday night’s “Dateline,” making it clear that at this point, he “couldn’t care less” about late-night television, though he certainly bears no ill will to people who are still in it:

“I’m happy for the guys,  the men and the women, [and] there should be more women … I don’t know why they didn’t give my show to a woman. That would have been fine, but I’m happy for their success.”

Did CBS make a mistake hiring Stephen Colbert to replace him? We don’t think we’d say that, since he has been brilliant in the role; we suppose that part of our feeling on the matter would depend on just who could have been the replacement for Letterman other than the former “Colbert Report” host. Would we love to see someone like Tina Fey in this role? Absolutely, but we don’t know what her interest level in the gig would be.

Letterman also says in the interview that a weight lifted on him the moment that Colbert took over his old show, and he was able to focus on some other parts of his life that he had damaged thanks to the rigors of hosting a late-night show. We’ll always love Dave’s candor, and the interview snippet below suggests that he certainly hasn’t lost his sense of humor.

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