Why Jimmy Kimmel Used to 'Pray' ABC Would Cancel His Talk Show

At one point, Jimmy Kimmel was done with hosting his ABC late-night talk show and hoped the network would cancel it.

“I didn’t know what I was doing, and I would pray that they canceled the show sometimes,” the comedian, 57, revealed on the Wednesday, October 22, edition of Ted Danson’s “Everybody Knows Your Name” podcast.

Kimmel has hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live! since 2003. Addressing his earliest days in front of the camera, he added, “I didn’t want to quit because I didn’t want to disappoint all the many people who worked for me, but I couldn’t. I was just — I couldn’t do it anymore.”

For starters, “We didn’t have guests many times. We’d go on the air live at midnight, at 12:05,” he recalled, adding, “There were times it was 5:30 in the afternoon and we didn’t have guests for that night’