LOS Angeles – Jimmy Kimmel at 11:35 PM?
“It is absolutely a possibility,” says ABC honcho Stephen McPherson.
But not likely if ABC can sign Jay Leno after he leaves the “Tonight” show next year.
The network’s entertainment president was put on the hot seat by Kimmel himself at a press conference for TV critics here yesterday.
The late-night host, posing as a reporter for the Sarasota Star-Herald-Tribune, raised his hand and asked about rumors that the network wants to hire Leno once his contract with NBC expires in 2009.
“Are you at all afraid that if you do replace Jimmy Kimmel he might do something crazy to you or your car?” Kimmel asked.
Talk of the shake-up in late night began Monday during a segment on “The Tonight Show,” when Leno held up a newspaper TV section erroneously identifying him as an ABC late-night host. “It’s like a headline from the future,” he said.
“I am not an oddsmaker, but we will certainly look at it,” McPherson told The Post. “I think there is absolutely room for both [personalities]. I think they would be an interesting pairing. But I still can’t believe that NBC is really going to let him go. It just doesn’t make any business sense.
“Someone like Leno doesn’t come along every year. So that is a huge possibility,” he said.
“Jimmy going on earlier is certainly a possibility” too, he added. “Late night is still a growth area.”
Of course, that could be bad news for “Nightline,” which currently occupies the 11:35 p.m. slot.