By JOE REEDY
Jason Kelce will try his hand at late-night television early next year.
Kelce announced during an appearance on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Thursday night that he will host “They Call It Late Night with Jason Kelce,” on ESPN. The one-hour show will tape on five straight Friday nights beginning Jan. 3. That coincides with the last week of the NFL’s regular season and the playoffs.
The show will originate in front of a live audience from Union Transfer in Philadelphia. The first four episodes will air at 1 a.m. EST starting on Jan. 4 with the final episode coming on at 1:30 a.m. EST on Feb. 1.
“I loved late-night shows, I’ve always loved them. I remember sleepovers watching Conan O’Brien with my friends,” Kelce said on Kimmel’s show. “We’re going to have a bunch of guys up there — legends of the game, friends that I played with, coaches, celebrities,” Kelce said.
The Philadelphia-based band Snacktime will provide the show’s music.
The show’s title is a homage to “They Call it Pro Football,” which was NFL Films’ first full-length film in 1967. NFL Films originated in Philadelphia and founders Ed and Steve Sabol are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It also featured the legendary voice of John Facenda, who did the news on Philadelphia television before becoming better known as the voice of NFL Films.
NFL Films will produce the show in conjunction with Kelce’s Wooderboy Productions and Skydance Sports.
Each episode will also be also seen on Replays airing on ESPN2, and also be available on ESPN+, ESPN’s YouTube channel and the Jason Kelce channel on YouTube.
Kelce is in the first year of a multi-year agreement with ESPN. He appears on the network’s “Monday Night Countdown” show as well as providing halftime and postgame analysis. He played 13 years for the Philadelphia Eagles before retiring at the end of last season and was the most sought-after former player by networks. He participated in last year’s NFL Broadcasting and Media Workshop, which used to be known as the “Broadcast Bootcamp.”
Kelce has made news lately, though, for other reasons.
He was involved in a confrontation with a fan in State College, Pennsylvania, before the Penn State-Ohio State game on Nov. 2, when a fan heckled Kelce and appeared to shout an anti-gay slur about his brother, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, for dating pop star Taylor Swift. Video showed Kelce grabbing the fan’s phone and throwing it to the ground.
Kelce apologized about the incident on ESPN on Nov. 4.
On Thursday night an autograph seeker verbally confronted Kelce outside the El Capitan Entertainment Center in Hollywood, where “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is taped.
Video obtained by TMZ shows Kelce explaining that he doesn’t sign autographs for people that follow where he is going. After being shouted at for over two minutes, Kelce eventually got out of the car and signed autographs, including shaking the hand of a man who was berating Kelce with obscenities.
