Jason Kelce New Talk Show Has Cautionary Tale in Magic Johnson’s ‘Magic Hour’
They Call It Late Night with Jason Kelce launches tonight, a once-a-week sports talk show with late-night comedy aspirations. At least that’s the dream for Kelce, a self-proclaimed Conan O’Brien fan who wants to try out joking for a living. But be careful what you wish for, Jason. You’re not the first charismatic, high-profile athlete to take a stab at late night. And in the case of NBA legend Magic Johnson, it ended in miserable failure.
Johnson’s Magic Hour was a disaster from the get-go in 1998. The biggest problem was Johnson himself, an extremely likable locker-room presence during a post-game interview, but a winning smile and positive attitude didn’t make him a comedian — or an interviewer for that matter. In many ways, he was the Tom Brady of late night, a personable sports icon who’d never flopped at anything before in his life. But as Brady discovered this football season, championship rings don’t necessarily make you good at television.
Magic Hour’s writers did Johnson no favors, writing jokes with “urban appeal” that sound horrific in hindsight. Johnson’s sidekick (or cohost, to hear him tell it) Craig Shoemaker described his opening bit on the show’s premiere for the New York Post. “Magic said, ‘Craig, how about that Bulls game last night?’ and this is a quote the writer told me to say: ‘Magic, I haven’t seen a beating like that caught on tape since Rodney King!’” Shoemaker explained. “You could hear the gasps in New York from Paramount Studios in L.A. If you had a recipe for disaster, that was the first ingredient.”
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Reviews were less than kind. The Associated Press blasted Johnson for sucking up to his guests, noting “his ability as a conversationalist is as yet undemonstrated.” Entertainment Weekly said Johnson was “not nearly as quick with his wits on a talk show as he was with his feet on a basketball court.” Variety was out right away: “It’s clear that the Magic man has finally found a domain he likely won’t be able to dominate.”
But Johnson’s harshest critic was Howard Stern. The shock jock was in his “King of All Media” phase, tearing down perceived competition on his daily radio show. He blasted Johnson for things Variety or Entertainment Weekly would never dream of mentioning, from his promiscuity and subsequent HIV diagnosis to trying to be too white (at least in Stern’s estimation). The smart play would have been to ignore Stern. Instead, the show’s producers thought they’d hit ratings gold by inviting Stern on Magic Hour as a guest. Ratings did spike, but Stern’s raucous appearance destroyed any credibility Johnson might have had left.
Lowlights of the guest spot included Stern groping Magic’s band leader Sheila E., telling Johnson to practice ebonics and stop talking like the white man and praising Magic’s sexual past by proclaiming, “At least you had fun getting AIDS.” Yeesh.
“Stern’s appearance represents everything a late-night show should not be: messy, jarring and funny for all the wrong reasons,” wrote Vulture. “Sent on to help address some of Magic’s issues and pull a publicity stunt that ultimately blew up in Magic Johnson’s face, Stern flipped the script and robbed the show from its host.”
Kelce has at least two things going for him that Magic didn’t. First, his long-running podcast New Heights alongside brother Travis has given him some interviewing practice that Magic didn’t get before launching his talk show. And while Kelce wants to lean into music and comedy, They Call It Late Night’s focus will be sports, allowing the first-time host to stay in his comfort zone.
But Kelce would do well to look at Magic Hour as a cautionary tale. Being a potential Hall of Famer in pro sports doesn’t automatically make you a great late-night host — and an awkward comedy show has the potential to generate the worst kind of unintentional laughs.
