For those who haven’t heard, Jason Kelce’s new weekly ESPN late-night TV show debuts in January, and there are only a few certainties at this point.
It will be funny. It will be unpredictable.
Oh yeah, there will be a live band with horns.
They Call It Late Night with Jason Kelce debuts Jan. 3 on an initial five-week run. The former NFL star turned media personality announced the show late last month on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
NFL Films will produce the show, its first venture into late-night TV. That’s a daunting enough task. Then add the colorful Kelce’s unpredictability. NFL Films senior executive Ross Ketover told The Hollywood Reporter that the new project is “scary and nerve wracking … Totally high-wire for us without a net.”
NFL Films previously worked with Kelce as co-producer on the aptly named Kelce, the documentary on the former Philadelphia Eagles star that debuted on Prime Video last year. Keith Cossrow, NFL Films vice president and head of content, said that relationship helped lead to their involvement in the show. Kelce had already made it clear when he signed on as an analyst with ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown that he wanted a late-night show.
“[He said] no matter where I go, there’s one thing I want to do: ‘I want to make a late-night show,’” Cossrow said. “’I grew up watching Conan [O’Brien] and [David] Letterman, and they’re my heroes, and I love what Bill Maher does with the panel on Friday nights on HBO, and I want to have a late-night show about sports, and I want to do it once a week, and I want to have a live band with horns. It’s got to have a horn section. And I want to shoot it in Philly, and I want you guys to produce it.’
“We were like, ‘we’re in, we’ll figure this out.’ I got goosebumps.”
The show will be taped at Union Transfer in Philadelphia and feature live music from the local band SNACKTIME. The show shouldn’t have any trouble booking guests.
“For me, the biggest thing that players say they miss when they leave the sport is being around the guys,” Kelce told Kimmel. “We’re going to have a bunch of guys up there. Legends of the game, friends that I played the game with, coaches, celebrities.”
Kelce is a naturally funny guy, unpredictable and spontaneous. Recall how just seconds into his Monday Night Countdown debut this season he complained about his ill-fitting shirt being too tight for his “tits.” (Sometimes he might be too spontaneous, like his recent admission on his New Heights podcast that he once shart his pants before a game.)
It will be up to NFL Films to help keep Kelce on track.
“Comedy is hard, sports and comedy is hard, us doing essentially a live studio show is something very new and exciting, but Jason is just a force of nature, and we’re so excited to be in business with him,” Ketover said. “The relationship we started with Peyton and Eli [Manning] doing those shows, working with talent is something really new and exciting for us that I think has inspired invigorated a lot of our producers here.”