Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O’Brien’s late-night talk show fate were once up-in-the-air, together.
The pair chatted on O’Brien’s “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast and discussed how Kimmel was almost replaced by the red-headed comedian.
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“There was a time when ABC came to me and they said, ‘Hey, we just want you to know up front: We are talking to Conan about replacing you’,” Kimmel explained.
And that discussion with his ABC execs came just before O’Brien’s take-over of NBC’s “The Tonight Show” in 2004, leaving O’Brien completely unaware.
But later, during his time on “Late Night”, O’Brien said he noticed others trying to lure him away.
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“I had one really strong push to go to Fox that was a real thing, but that was it,” O’Brien revealed. “It makes me laugh now, but I wanted to stay with NBC because I wanted to have my whole career with NBC.”
In the end, Kimmel has stayed with ABC with his reign on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and O’Brien headed to TBS for “Conan”.
Jimmy Fallon ultimately took on the “Tonight Show” in 2014.
