Jimmy Kimmel Nearly Misplaced His ABC Gig to Jon Stewart

Jimmy Kimmel is maybe one of the iconic late-night discuss present hosts within the nation. Rivaled by few, he acquired his huge break on ABC in 2003. Nonetheless, he practically misplaced his place to a different host of the identical caliber, and the explanation why he edged him out is bewildering.

He revealed to Ted Danson on his podcast, The place Everyone Is aware of Your Identify, that Jon Stewart (The Day by day Present) was additionally a candidate for what’s now referred to as Jimmy Kimmel Dwell! He said that he was shocked that he managed to grab the spot attributable to how profitable Stewart already was in 2003.

Kimmel defined how they’d the identical supervisor, James Dixon, who was nearly to shut the deal for Stewart with ABC. However, on the final minute, ABC chairman Lloyd Braun determined to look at his tape and preferred him sufficient to point out his audition to Bob Iger. Each agreed that Kimmel was the fitting match for the job, and the remainder is historical past.

Jon and I’ve the identical supervisor, James ‘Child Doll’ Dixon, and James was about to shut this deal for Jon to host the present… [ABC chairman Lloyd Braun] watched my tape, and he was like, ‘I feel this may be the man.’ And he introduced the tape to Bob Iger, and Iger mentioned, ‘Yeah, I feel this may be the man.’ It was a really unusual factor as a result of [James] was within the troublesome place of getting to inform Jon, ‘Uh, you are not going to ABC, however Jimmy goes to ABC.’

He was so shocked that ABC selected him over somebody as well-known as Stewart that he requested Iger for a proof. He jokingly responded with, “Properly, you had been cheaper.” And, Kimmel said that whereas everybody laughed at his reply, he believed that it was most probably true.

I mentioned, ‘What was it, like why ‘that is fairly a leap that you just guys made. I used to be on The Man Present, I used to be doing soccer picks on Fox NFL Sunday — what was it? He goes, ‘Properly, you had been cheaper.’ And everyone laughed, however I knew he wasn’t kidding.

Kimmel added that he personally thought that ABC made a mistake by hiring him and that they positively ought to have picked Stewart as a result of that is precisely what he would have performed. “That was a mistake, by the way in which. They positively ought to rent Jon. If I am in that place, there is no query I rent John 100 occasions out of 100,” he defined.

Jimmy Kimmel Dwell! airs new episodes on weeknights at 11:35 PM ET and eight:35 PM PT on ABC.