Kimmel says ABC nearly hired Jon Stewart for his job, but he was cheaper

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel revealed this week that ABC almost hired Jon Stewart to host the late night show Kimmel now presides over, but he was too expensive.

“They wanted a traditional late night talk show,” Kimmel said during an episode of actor Ted Danson’s podcast published on Wednesday. “They were almost about to hire Jon Stewart … and we have the same manager.”

Kimmel said if it was up to him, or if he were an executive at ABC at the time, he would have hired Stewart over himself “one hundred times out of one hundred.”

The comedian said that years later he asked Disney CEO Bob Iger why he took “such a leap” and decided to hire him over Stewart, to which the media boss replied “well, you were cheaper.”

“I knew he wasn’t kidding,” the comedian laughed. “So … sometimes it pays to be cheaper.”

Kimmel recently garnered headlines after he was briefly suspended by ABC over comments accusing conservatives of trying to score “political points” in response to the fatal shooting of activist Charlie Kirk and joking about how President Trump responded to the assassination.

His suspension sparked outrage from Democrats and press freedom advocates, some of whom accused Trump’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of pressuring Disney to pull Kimmel off the air.

After he was reinstated by ABC, Kimmel apologized for the comments on Kirk but blasted Trump and his administration for what he said was an effort to crack down on speech that is critical of the administration.