Jimmy Kimmel Once 'Prayed' for ABC to Cancel His Show: 'I Couldn't Do It Anymore'

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00:00Jimmy Kimmel once prayed for ABC to cancel his show. I couldn't do it anymore.

00:06Jimmy Kimmel once wanted out of his ABC late-night talk show, even hoping the network would pull the plug.

00:12I didn't know what I was doing, and I would pray that they canceled the show sometimes,

00:16Kimmel57, revealed on the October 22nd edition of Ted Danson's Everybody Knows Your Name podcast.

00:23I didn't want to quit because I didn't want to disappoint all the many people who worked for me,

00:27but I couldn't. I was just, I couldn't do it anymore, he shared, reflecting on the pressure

00:32he faced. There were nights when the show aired live at midnight without guests. There were times

00:38it was 5.30 in the afternoon, and we didn't have guests for that night's show, and I would have

00:42to just pick up the phone and call my friends. To help combat the pressure, Kimmel leaned on friends

00:48like Sarah Silverman, Kathy Griffin, David Alan Greer, Adam Carolla, and Anthony Anderson.

00:53God bless them because I needed them, Kimmel told Danson.

00:57Despite a rocky start, the show eventually stabilized.

01:01We figured out how to do it, Kimmel said. He also spiced up the format with running bits

01:06to keep viewers engaged and maintain momentum. These remarks come after Kimmel's program

01:11faced a suspension due to controversy over a monologue about the suspect in Charlie Kirk's

01:15murder. While appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in early October, Kimmel admitted

01:21he thought Jimmy Kimmel live, was over when ABC pulled it on September 17th, prompting protests

01:27from his supporters.

01:29I was in my office typing away. I get a phone call. It's ABC. They say they want to talk to

01:34me. This is unusual, he recounted.

01:36As far as I knew, they didn't even know I was doing a show previous to this.

01:40I have five people who work in my office with me, so the only private place to go is the

01:45bathroom. So, I go into the bathroom, and I'm on the phone with the ABC executives, and

01:50they say, listen, we want to take the temperature down. We're concerned about what you're going

01:54to say tonight, and we decided the best route is to take the show off the air. I said, I don't

01:59think that's a good idea. And they said, well, we think it's a good idea. And then there

02:04was a vote, and I lost the vote, he explained. Afterward, he returned to share the news with

02:09his staff, joking that his wife, Molly McNerney, an executive producer on the show, commented

02:14that I was whiter than Jim Gaffigan when I came out of there.