Neil Patrick Harris Reveals Why He Didn't Want David Letterman's Job

May 15, 2014 -- Imagine Neil Patrick Harris as the host of "The Late Show."

It could have happened, or so he says.

Before Stephen Colbert was officially named as the replacement for David Letterman, CBS CEO Les Moonves called in Harris for a meeting in a room off his office, Harris told Howard Stern today.

"We had sushi brought in," he said. "It was fantastic. It was delicious. I loved it.”

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But Harris, 40, was not interested when he said Moonves asked whether he'd be interested in taking over for Letterman. He also didn't want "The Late Late Show," which is being vacated by Craig Ferguson.

"I told him the things that concerned me: about the longevity of that kind of gig, that I think I would get bored of the repetition fast and the structure of it is so set," Harris said. "I don't have any interest in doing monologue, commercial, sketch, guest, guest, musical act, good night."

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Instead, Harris said he pitched a variety show, which he hopes CBS will one day pick up. That, he said, better speaks to his skill set and interests.

"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 going to get the guests to want to come on to your thing," he said.

"[With] a weekly thing, you'd have more time to prep for stuff, you could do pretaped stuff that would be really exciting. You could flesh it out a little bit more, have more acts and not just do nightly."