At the Ed Sullivan Theater, the hot seat turns Sunday, January 30, 2000 By VERNE GAY Special from Newsday The debate rages, churns, and roils. Friendships are strained. The subject just won't die. The New Hampshire primary? The stock market? Susan Lucci's future on Broadway? No, silly. Really important stuff: Should Dave have a guest host? Somewhere in the New York area, David Letterman is recuperating from open-heart surgery. He is doing well, very well, and his eventual return is measured in weeks. In the meantime, there's a show to put on and a February sweeps looming. And so, the Second Big Question: Should CBS and Letterman squander the recent ratings gains by airing repeats? (Everyone agrees that even a roomful of chimps could easily pick any number of top-flight episodes.) The answer is ridiculously obvious. Yes, "Late Show With David Letterman" should have guest hosts. More the merrier. Sooner the better. And just to add a little edge to this debate: Letterman also might want to consider a semipermanent guest host after he returns. At this moment, Letterman and his trusted lieutenant, Rob Burnett, are conferring on the "guest host" issue. Burnett, executive producer, said last week that they "have never been opposed to the idea of a guest host, [and] it's something we'll consider along with a lot of other options." "Late Show" aficionados have had intemperate disagreements on the subject. Columnist Aaron Barhhart recently posted a diatribe against the idea on his respected tvbarn.com Web site, noting that a guest host "is one of those ideas that sounds like a can't lose -- that is, until somebody actually tries it." Now, I offer eight reasons why this would be a brilliant idea. (Not 10? Sorry, this was all I could think of.) 1. Rotating hosts would be fun for viewers. Bring a different one in each night, and repeat the process the following week. Keep each night's guest host a closely guarded secret. Even the studio audience won't know until he or she walks onstage, and, of course, viewers will tune in just to see that night's face. This could make for absurd fun: Any idiot can do this job one night, and viewers could judge just how competent a guest host is. If they're utterly incompetent, all the better. 2. No usual suspects, please. Regis Philbin is a wonderful dude, but he's also overexposed. Why not the unexpected: a sports figure (Derek Jeter), or news (Tom Brokaw), or quasi-singer (Kathie Lee Gifford, a not unamusing guest over the years), or TV star (Bill Cosby), or reclusive movie star (Paul Newman, who's a Letterman pal). 3. OK, usual suspects please. Fine, if it's usual suspects you want, then there are a boatload of 'em. Jerry Seinfeld (his name has been mentioned about 885 times so far). Bill Murray (the classic Letterman guest). Tony Randall (in recent years, it seems, his only job has been to appear on "Late Show"). 4. Give Chris Elliott a one-nighter (but no more). Chris who? One of the more amusing Letterman regulars from years past (the Panicky Guy, the Guy Under the Seats, Marlon Brando). That's who. Elliott would be a nice blast from the past and could introduce taped highlights of some golden oldies (the Monkey Cam; the Velcro Suit). 5. Alternate guest hosts in studios on each coast. No need to do "Late Show" each night from the Ed Sullivan Theater; warm up that fancy one CBS built for Dave at CBS' Television City when he joined the network in '93. This way, the show could avail itself of Left Coast guest hosts who might be otherwise averse to making a cross-country trek for a one- or two-night stand. 6. Two words: Johnny Carson. Yes, the Great Carnac has been widely mentioned as a possible guest host, to which I say this: A singularly brilliant idea. We're not asking you to come to New York, Johnny. Just put down the tennis racket, get in the limo, and go over to the CBS lot. Don't even stay for the whole show. Just come out. Bow. Accept the adoring applause. Let people see that you are still in reasonable health (are you?). Tell a couple of jokes. Accept more adoring applause. And then ... do whatever you want. Every paper in the country will cover this lavishly. It will be one of the TV events of the year. 7. Do a few all-music shows. Give the night over to Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra, and let Paul introduce a few choice acts. Dave's favorites? Blues Traveler, David Sanborn, Lou Reed, among others. 8. And, yes, this could warm Dave up to the idea of a permanent guest host after he returns. We love ya, Dave, but the hard truth is, you just had a quintuple bypass and you are not immortal. Why not lay off your grueling schedule just a bit? A guest host could help. In an interview several years ago, Letterman told me, "Everybody has a built-in viability, and I know I'm not kidding myself. I can't work into my mid-60s the way Carson did. My father was dead by the time he was 53, so I don't want this job to kill me. In anybody's life you look at these landmarks as they come and you act on them as they come or you don't ... How much longer would [I] like to do this? Well, my contract runs through the year 2000. We'll see what happens then." (Note to worried readers: His contract has been extended.)