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 be filmed in front of a live audience from Union Transfer in Philadelphia. The first four episodes will air at 1 a.m. ET starting Jan. 4 with the final episode at 1:30 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.”
The Philadelphia-based band Snacktime will provide the show’s music.
The show’s title is an 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. “They Call if Pro Football” 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.
Each episode of Kelce’s show will have repeat airings on ESPN2 and also be available on ESPN+ and ESPN’s and Kelce’s YouTube channels.
Kelce is in the first year of a multiyear agreement with ESPN. He appears on the network’s “Monday Night Countdown” show and provides 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.
Kelce has made news lately, though, for other reasons.
He was involved in a confrontation 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. Video showed Kelce grabbing the fan’s phone and throwing it to the ground. Kelce appeared to use the same anti-gay slur during the exchange.
Kelce apologized for the incident on ESPN on Nov. 4.
On Thursday night, an autograph seeker verbally confronted Kelce as he was entering a vehicle outside the El Capitan Entertainment Center in Los Angeles, where “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is taped.
Video obtained by TMZ shows Kelce explaining that he doesn’t sign autographs for people who follow him. After being shouted at for over two minutes, Kelce eventually gets out of the vehicle, signs autographs and shakes the man’s hand.
