Jimmy Kimmel stunned the world on Feb. 21 by admitting that he might be retiring from late night soon, and now a source tells HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY that he’s interested in ‘following in the footsteps’ of his pal Howard Stern! We have all the details, right here.

Jimmy Kimmel is a notoriously hard worker. The 49-year-old late night TV host often clocks 70 hours a week, and commits a ton of his personal time to preparing for his show. So we couldn’t blame him when he admitted to Variety that “I know I will do the show for another three years,” but “it’s possible that will be it. My wife’s pregnant. At a certain point, I’d like to have a little more free time. I have very little free time as it is.”

So what would Jimmy do instead? A source tells HollywoodLife.com that he’s got his eyes on the future and technology will likely play a role. “In three years so many things could possibly happen both to TV and social media and the ways we get our entertainment, so Jimmy is looking at all options including retirement and keeping up with the show, even making it something that would be less days, not everyday of the week.”

According to the insider, Jimmy sees the idea of late night retirement as an opportunity to do something new with his buds. “When it comes to what he wants to do next also goes with what his best friend will do,” said the source. “Howard Stern ends with Sirius in 2020 as well and they might want to work on something together. Everything is on the table, but one thing that he is doing is following in the footsteps of Howard.” Very cool!

HollywoodLifers, do you think that Jimmy will really leave late night behind? Let us know!