Jon Stewart came closer than most people know to landing the ABC late-night gig that ultimately went to Jimmy Kimmel.

During an interview taped before Kimmel was suspended from the network following threats from the Trump administration, Kimmel told Ted Danson on his Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast that ABC was “almost about to hire Jon Stewart” to replace Bill Maher in 2002. At the time, Stewart was about three years into his run as host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.

“They wanted a traditional late-night talk show in that slot,” Kimmel said. “Jon and I have the same manager, James ‘Baby Doll’ Dixon, and James was about to close this deal for Jon to host the show.”

ABC executive Michael Davies intervened, however, and suggested that Lloyd Braun, the company’s chairman at

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