Jason Kelce seems inescapable on television, popping up in commercials for Campbell’s soup, the Marriott hotel chain, General Mills foods, YouTube TV, Buffalo Wild Wings and Tide laundry detergent.
Now ESPN is betting that Kelce fans want to stay up late to watch him talk some more.
Kelce, who spent his entire 13-season professional football career with the Philadelphia Eagles, is in the middle of an experiment as a late-night host on the network better known for its live sports and heated debate shows. On “They Call It Late Night With Jason Kelce,” he has judged a beer-chugging competition, driven a tiny helmet-shaped car and had conversations with the National Football League’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, and the rapper Lil Dicky.
“This is not something I think would work with just anyone, but he’s one of those guys that I believe can pull it off,” said Burke Magnus, the president of content at ESPN.
ESPN is the latest company to leverage the frenzied interest in the Kelce family. His brother, Travis, is dating Taylor Swift and is one game away from another Super Bowl berth with the Kansas City Chiefs. The brothers recently signed a distribution deal for their podcast, “New Heights,” that is worth more than $100 million, and Jason Kelce’s wife, Kylie, hosts a popular podcast of her own.
Jason Kelce, a jovial, bearded Everyman, has reached an unimaginable level of stardom for a retired offensive lineman. He is especially beloved in Philadelphia, where his hourlong show is taped in front of a live audience inside a cramped concert hall. More than 200 fans, many wearing kelly-green Eagles attire, waited in frigid temperatures to attend its premiere this month.
There were a few growing pains, with a staff member asking Kelce to rerecord an introduction to one of the segments.
“First show, everybody,” Kelce said as he walked backstage.
Stephen Espinoza, the former president of Showtime Sports, who oversaw the division’s studio and live-event programing, said he was not worried that the Kelces were oversaturating the market, citing the extended prominence of the Kardashians.
“There are certain celebrities that have done well by curating their brand, but there are plenty that have been successful and said, ‘The more, the merrier,’” Espinoza said.
When Kelce, who declined an interview request, signed a multiyear deal to be an ESPN analyst last spring after retiring from the N.F.L., he negotiated a late-night show concept into his contract. Kelce, 37, has said he grew up watching Conan O’Brien, and he saw his brother host “Saturday Night Live” in 2023.
NFL Films is producing the show’s five-week trial run, which ESPN said fit nicely into its lineup during the playoffs. The show is prerecorded on Friday afternoons and airs on Saturdays at 1 a.m. Eastern on ESPN and the ESPN+ streaming service.
ESPN’s experiment comes at an inflection point for the late-night industry. Longstanding shows hosted by Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel have been whittled to four weekly tapings amid declining viewership. Late-night comedy increasingly relies on segments that translate into viral internet clips.
The Jan. 3 premiere of “They Call It Late Night With Jason Kelce” drew 290,000 viewers, slightly below that time slot’s 296,000 average viewers across networks, according to the research firm Nielsen. But 881,000 viewers watched the following week’s episode, which aired after a college football playoff game. The third episode drew 356,000 viewers. (The first three full episodes averaged 168,0000 views on Kelce’s YouTube channel, which publishes an uncensored version with expletives included.)
“If the show is good and the content is great, people will find it,” said Lindsay Shookus, an Emmy-winning producer who worked on “Saturday Night Live” for more than a decade. “I think ESPN and Jason’s team have to buckle down and find the format that’s going to let him shine.”
The show leans into sketches and banter, and Shookus said that the unscripted sports discussions were Kelce’s strength.
“He’s not a comedian, and I don’t think you can ask him to be a comedian all of a sudden,” she said. “I think to break through, you have to capture his authentic self.”
Magnus said that ESPN was not beholden to ratings, but that the numbers and any buzz on social media would drive discussions about improving the show. ESPN and Kelce will evaluate the show’s future after its trial period ends next week, though the network is optimistic it will continue in some fashion.
“For me, it’s going to be a little bit more art than science,” Magnus said. “Do people think it’s good and funny? Does it have the potential to grow?”
Magnus said he hoped the show would expand beyond Philadelphia. Kelce cemented himself into the rowdy sports town’s lore by delivering a passionate and hoarse speech during the Super Bowl parade after the 2017 season.
“He’s been himself and people are catching on to that,” said Sam Bender, a college student who waited for the show’s premiere in a shimmering green suit. “He’s fun to listen to.”
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