"Wow, I have my own show."
Jason Kelce was in disbelief as he stood in front of a packed live audience at Union Transfer in Philadelphia on Friday evening.
Fans decked in Birds gear waited in line outside of the venue for more than two hours before the show began recording to see the newest talk show host take the stage.
Kelce alluded to his childhood when talking about what made him want to have his own late-night show, citing the likes of Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, and other famous late-night hosts who he used to watch as a child.
"I used to love Conan as a kid. Now I'm up here doing my own show," Kelce said. "I was not lying up there. I used to love watching late-night TV growing up. I've always been a fan of late-night TV. When I played, I tried to get better sleep hours. But there's something beautiful in all of the coordination and everything that happens with the show like this, and you feel like you really get to know people, especially when it's on repeatedly like that."
While the talk show hosts he watched growing up inspired the New Heights podcaster, how did "They Call it Late Night with Jason Kelce" develop into the extraordinary production millions of fans will see on television?
ESPN and Kelce worked with NFL Films, allowing clips of NFL footage and sound to be aired throughout the show, something that was of high importance to the former Philadelphia center.
"I knew I wanted NFL Films involved, because I felt like we wanted to make the show that celebrated the NFL landscape, not just from current players and current games, but of past games, past players, past announcers, and NFL fans in this subculture of the NFL," Kelce said after the show's recording.
"We wanted to create a show that really embraced all of that. And NFL Films is such a catalog of these sounds and these clips and this music that I think just makes you get this feeling when some of the music plays that for me, at least, is really sentimental with the sport of football."
The show's title was even used as an ode to the first episode from NFL Films to ever air.
Development of the late-night show began back in February as Kelce worked with Wooderboy Productions, Skydance Sports, ESPN, and NFL Films to get everything off the ground.
"Before you know it, you're building a team with NFL Films. You're going to ESPN for back-and-forth there and communication. You're building set design, you're building writers, you're building, you know, who we can have on the show, which, admittedly, probably comes back together at the last part, right? But there's so much. What are we going to do? What's the show going to be? What's the format? How much is going to be the panel dialog? I really felt it would be nice to do these entertaining bits with comedy. I mean, we all did," Kelce said.
Kelce opened the show walking in from behind the crowd and up onto the stage where he spoke with the fans and thanked them for being a part of the debut.
From there, he kicked off the premiere in the only way Jason Kelce could do so – chugging a beer.
However, this was not any normal chug, as he was served by Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Eagles wide receiver Harold Carmichael, who gave him a boost of confidence about doing the show.
And of course, Jason's wife, Kylie, had to make a viewer discretion statement to the crowd about all of the language being used in the show, joking that the Kelce's children may be used to it, but others watching at home should be advised.
And much like many talk shows, there was a live band inside the venue, performing during breaks and at different times throughout the show. Snacktime had the honor of playing upstairs on the balcony of Union Transfer.
"I really wanted brass, but when I think of NFL music and Snacktime had performed my first charity benefit concert for my own charity years ago. So, I was familiar with them. They can do everything. I mean, they have that kind of talent to do a bunch of things. They're excellent musicians," Kelce said.
"It was important to me, whoever was doing this, to be in Philadelphia, a piece of the Philadelphia scene. And we tried to do that throughout, we really did. The show is obviously filmed here. The venue's here. I felt it was important to pay respect to the city that gave me my career, to try and make this as Philly as possible, and not outwardly being as Philly as possible.
"This first show is certainly going to be pretty Philly, but it will eventually evolve into a show that feels more national, but I always want the Philly roots be felt and heard. So that was an important thing for us."
The Ohio native also paid an ode to fellow late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, going through a portal to appear in front of the comedian to ask for advice on his first show.
The main portion of the show was when the panel came out, which will have new guests for each episode.
The debut show included celebrities such as former Philadelphia 76er and Inside the NBA host Charles Barkley and Philadelphia rapper Lil Dicky (David Burd) joining Kelce on stage.
"I had Dave on my podcast, Charles on my podcast, and have known all these guys for a while. So, it was very comfortable, and I knew all of these guys can talk about anything. It's not always going to be like that. You don't necessarily want it to always be like that. It'll be important to have a wide range of viewpoints on the show," Kelce said.
The show drew strong laughs and reactions from the crowd and many "E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES!" chants throughout the night.
It featured a 14-year-old version of Kelce as well as an into-the-future look from different characters who helped enhance the premiere.
Similarly to how the show began, the first episode ended with a beer chug.
Kelce brought up four fans from different NFL teams – Rob Dunphy (Eagles), Ronnie Doitche (Bills), Garey Faulkner (Bengals), and Jalen Franko (Packers) – who competed in the "Chug Machine" segment.
Franko came out on top and was gifted two tickets to the Super Bowl after the win.
The first episode was a great success in real time, and Kelce knows how difficult it was to put it all together. He is excited and grateful for what's to come.
"It's really a challenge to do and pull together all the things in a show like this. And I really became aware of how difficult filming things live is. I did Saturday Night Live with my brother (Travis) and Monday Night Countdown on ESPN. But there's a challenge that goes into it. And one of the things I really enjoy is that there's so many people involved, and everybody has their role," Kelce said.
"Whether it's the audio guys, the stage set guys, the writers, the directors, I mean, there are so many people that it takes to pull off this thing, and you feel like you develop a team chemistry. It feels like this is gameday. So obviously, first show, I mean, plenty of errors, just like a game, plenty of things to clean up. But I mean just so happy with how it went, so just happy to be involved in this thing and have all these really talented people, these experts in their fields, involved with this thing." – Written by Liam Wichser
