Jimmy Kimmel Live! was nearly Jon Stewart Live! During a visit to Ted Danson ’s Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, Jimmy Kimmel revealed how he inadvertently swiped the ABC gig from fellow comic Jon Stewart.

In the early 2000s, ABC was on the hunt for someone to host a late-night show, said Kimmel. “ Nightline was in the slot, and then Bill Maher’s show, Politically Incorrect , followed it,” he continued. “They wanted a traditional late-night talk show in that slot, which nobody knew.” Kimmel said that the network planned to hire the Daily Show host and that his manger, James “Baby Doll” Dixon — who also happens to be Stewart’s manger — “was about to close the deal.” However, that’s when Michael Davies, an ABC executive, told Lloyd Braun, the company’s then-chairman

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