Competing to be number one in their respective time periods went by the wayside as Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon joined forces to pull an epic April Fools’ Day prank Friday night.

Completely surprising both in-studio audience members and at-home viewers, Kimmel appeared in New York to take over The Tonight Show, interviewing Hugh Jackman and Bridget Everett, while Fallon transported himself to Los Angeles to host Jimmy Kimmel Live! with special guest Justin Timberlake and Kimmel’s Aunt Chippy. The Red Hot Chili Peppers did double duty as musical guest on both shows.

The Hollywood Reporter was in the crowd at the Jimmy Kimmel taping, hosted by Fallon, where audience members had no idea of the swap until Fallon came out on stage to kick off the show, with cameras rolling. As the crowd leapt to its feet, Fallon teased, “Hi, I’m Jimmy,” and as the cheers continued joked, “Settle down, you’re going to offend the other Jimmy.”

Fallon quipped that, “for surprises on ABC this week, this one’s a distant second,” in reference to Sunday’s Oscar drama, and said he felt like he was entering the “late night multiverse,” Fallon said “we worked really hard to keep this a secret,” explaining that the two hosts had been planning the prank for four years.

After the monologues, the duo had a live check-in, with Kimmel in Fallon’s 30 Rock studio and Fallon on Kimmel’s Hollywood Boulevard set. “I love that we did this — I can’t believe we pulled it off,” Fallon remarked, noting that the inspiration came because “Jimmy and I wanted to have some fun with people mixing us up all the time.” 

“We’ve been talking about this for a long time, I was just telling [the audience],” Kimmel told Fallon, explaining that the two conceived the idea in April 2020.

Opening up the show over in NYC, Kimmel joked that at least some of the Tonight Show studio audience at NBC Studios in Rockefeller Center might be bummed by his presence.

“Show of hands, how many of you are disappointed?” he asked. “Be honest!”

The two hosts swapped their signature bits, with Fallon taking over “Mean Tweets” and Kimmel writing Fallon’s “Thank You Notes.”

In yet another bit of April 1st tomfoolery, Timberlake (who apparently was unaware of the switch) appeared as Fallon’s first guest of the night, impersonating Kimmel “enemy” Matt Damon for the first segment, and spray-painted “I Love Matt Damon” on Kimmel’s desk.

“I love that we did this. I can’t believe we pulled it off. I really can’t believe it,” Fallon said.

“A big chunk of your audience almost left when I walked out” Kimmel joked to Fallon. 

In reality, the audience seemed happy with the host swap, but Kimmel hedged his bets, saying, “we have a great show tonight. If you don’t like it, it’s okay, it’s not mine.”

As the show wrapped, Fallon thanked the show’s writers and producers for “so much work that went into pulling this all off,” and before he left the stage once again addressed the in-studio audience, admitting, “I was so nervous to come out here, like what if they boo me?” He received quite the opposite reaction, though, adding: “Tonight has been so much fun.”