Report: Kimmel, Carson Working On Radio-Based TV Pilot

Carson Daly, Jimmy Kimmel

Jimmy Kimmel’s humor could be expanding to ABC’s primetime lineup.

The network’s late night host has sold a pilot script via ABC Studios, which made a major script commitment. Kimmel and longtime friend Carson Daly will be writing a pilot for ABC. Joining the pair as an executive producer on the project is a more experienced scripted hand, Dan Fogelman, whose résumé includes creating ABC comedy The Neighbors.

The untitled half-hour entry is about a once massively popular VJ who loses it all and is forced to move back in with his parents and take a job as host of a local radio "morning zoo." If that scenario sounds familiar, it should — the concept is loosely based on Daly’s career before his recent resurgence as host of NBC breakout reality competition The Voice and a regular role on the same
network’s Today show.

Kimmel and Daly have a lengthy shared history, dating back to the mid-1990s, when the former convinced the latter to drop out of college and become his intern at L.A. radio station KROQ. The two men, who both went on to become late night hosts (Kimmel at ABC; Daly at NBC), have remained close in the two decades since.