Jimmy Kimmel Knows Why ABC Chose Him Over Jon Stewart

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This is one of those things I probably knew at one point but have since forgotten, but when ABC decided to start its own late-night franchise back in 2003, the choice of host apparently came down to Jimmy Kimmel and Jon Stewart. At the time, Jon Stewart had been the successful host of The Daily Show since 1999, and Jimmy Kimmel had been the co-host of The Man Show and the former co-host of Win Ben Stein’s Money on Comedy Central.

Stewart and Kimmel also shared the same agent, and according to Kimmel, their agent was about to close a deal for Jon Stewart to host ABC’s late-night talk show. But then, as Kimmel explained on Ted Danson’s Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, “Lloyd [Braun,

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