Neil Patrick Harris Reacts To Letterman Replacement Question

What was Neil Patrick Harris's reaction to the question, "Would he like to replace David Letterman?"

"Wow!" said Harris.

Harris played it for laughs, but he's considered a leading contender to fill Letterman's shoes. Harris insists his starring Broadway role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch takes up all of his time, so he hasn't even considered the Late Show job.

"I'm super-focused on Hedwig at the moment, so that hasn't even been a conversation at all," Harris told reporters.

But he didn't exactly say "no" to the job, noting that the final call on Letterman's successor will be made by CBS honcho Les Moonves.

"I'm a big fan of CBS and Les, so who knows what his decision would be?" said Harris.

Harris knows one thing for sure— theLate Show job would not be easy.

"It would be an asinine amount of work," he said.

Another leading contender for the job, the usually chatty Chelsea Handler refused to answer the question when paparazzi caught up with her in Los Angeles.

And on The View, 80-year-old Joan Rivers was practically drafted into the Late Show job.

Whoopi Goldberg said, "Maybe you should take over for Letterman!"

Meanwhile, The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon tore a page from Letterman's repertoire with a Top Ten reasons Letterman is retiring list:

"Number seven: He's not really retiring, he's "consciously un-hosting."

"And the number one reason David Letterman is retiring: Jimmy Fallon is stealing his bits!"

And there was a tribute to Dave on The Simpsons Sunday night when Homer and the others rush to New York to appear on theLate Show, but it all goes wrong.

Letterman says, "So, what are we doing here? Is it the thing where the family runs in and sits down?"

The animated family runs in and sits down on Dave's couch.

"That's it?" says Letterman. "We flew you in and put you up for that? I think we're done here!"

Dave signals the band to strike up the Simpsons theme song, and then a message appears onscreen: "We'll miss you Dave."