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Jimmy Kimmel<\/a> has revealed that ABC originally had his friend and fellow late-night host Jon Stewart<\/a> in mind to host its late-night talk show<\/a> back in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n Appearing on the latest episode of Ted Danson<\/a>\u2018s Where Everybody Knows Your Name<\/em><\/a> podcast, Kimmel said ABC was close to signing a deal with The Daily Show<\/em><\/a> host before the executives changed their mind and decided to hire him instead.<\/p>\n \u201cThey wanted a traditional late-night talk show in that slot,\u201d Kimmel said, per The Daily Beast<\/em><\/a>, referring to how ABC was looking to replace Bill Maher<\/a>\u2018s Politically Incorrect<\/em><\/a> after it ended in 2002. \u201cJon and I have the same manager, James \u2018Baby Doll\u2019 Dixon, and James was about to close this deal for Jon to host the show.\u201d<\/p>\n The comedian shared that then-ABC chairman Lloyd Braun ended up watching his tape and was like, \u201cI think this might be the guy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe brought the tape to (Disney CEO) Bob Iger, and Iger said, \u2018Yeah, I think this might be the guy,\u2019\u201d Kimmel continued. \u201cIt was a very strange thing because [James] was in the difficult position of having to tell Jon, \u2018Uh, you\u2019re not going to ABC, but Jimmy is going to ABC.’\u201d<\/p>\n At the time, Kimmel was known for his work on the Comedy Central sketch show The Man Show<\/em><\/a>, and so was surprised that ABC would choose him to host a traditional late-night talk show.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a mistake, by the way,\u201d he told Danson. \u201cThey definitely should hire Jon. If I\u2019m in that position, there\u2019s no question I hire John 100 times out of a 100.\u201d<\/p>\n Kimmel noted that he later asked Iger about why he decided to hire him over the more experienced Stewart, who had been hosting The Daily Show<\/em> since 1999.<\/p>\n \u201c[Iger] goes, \u2018Well, you were cheaper.\u2019 And everybody laughed, but I knew he wasn\u2019t kidding,\u201d Kimmel stated.<\/p>\n Jimmy Kimmel Live!<\/em> premiered in 2003 and has since aired over 3,500 episodes. On the podcast, Kimmel admitted it\u2019s his \u201cvision of hell\u201d watching back his first year of shows. \u201cIt took us a long time to figure it out,\u201d he said, \u201cand we\u2019re very fortunate to get a long time to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n He also shared how ABC was \u201cgood enough to keep us on the air\u201d despite his mouth getting them into trouble. \u201cI was causing trouble once every, like, two and a half months, some major thing was happening,\u201d he recalled. \u201cSomething that came out of my mouth, you know, and caused a whole thing. It was just tumultuous.\u201d<\/p>\n Kimmel\u2019s show was temporarily suspended last month after backlash to comments the host made on-air about the fatal shooting of conservative activist\u00a0Charlie Kirk<\/a>. The suspension followed the refusal of powerful station group Nexstar to air the show on its 32 broadcast affiliates.<\/p>\n The suspension was later lifted, with Kimmel\u2019s return show on Tuesday, September 23, reaching 6.3 million viewers<\/a>, making it the second most-watched broadcast in the show\u2019s history.<\/p>\n