Inside the debut of ‘They Call it Late Night with Jason Kelce’

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.