After a five-year run, Craig Kilborn has decided to step down as host of CBS's post-'David Letterman' late-night show.

Kilborn and CBS had been in talks since May but were unable to reach an agreement regarding salary. Kilborn’s last show on “The Late, Late Show” could come as early as the end of the month. The show was already scheduled to be on hiatus for the first two weeks of September.

Kilborn told Variety that he wants time to focus on writing and producing other television projects. Kilborn, famous for his narcissistic and sarcastic approach, first received media attention when he co-anchored ESPN’s “SportsCenter.” He also worked for Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.” He has given no hint as to what his next move will be.

CBS has started looking for a new host to replace Kilborn. Some sources speculate that CBS may try to lure Conan O’Brien over to CBS even though his contract doesn’t end for another year and a half. Conan’s audience in the same time slot is nearly double that of Kilborn’s show. O’Brien, however, has expressed an interest in an earlier time slot and could leap to Fox or ABC if the right deal was available. Other names being floated around for the slot are Amy Sedaris, Jeffrey Ross and Jillian Barberie. The late night talk show has ending up being a mainly male-dominated domain. The audience generally skews toward men but this author thinks it might be nice to have a woman in the late night chair for a change.