US talk show host Stephen Colbert came *this* close to scoring a role on Friends, he revealed to cast member Lisa Kudrow.

On Wednesday night’s edition of The Light Show, the presenter recalled his audition for a one-week part.

“I got called in, auditioned on the set and everything like that,” Colbert told Lisa, who played Phoebe Buffay in the hit sitcom. “Not with anybody, with a casting director or something.

“Basically, if I got it they would have pushed me in a room and I would have started working with you guys.”

Unfortunately for him, the audition went south, just like his ill-fated try-out for the role of Screech in Saved By The Bell years earlier.

“And… I didn’t get it,” Colbert said of the Friends gig. “I didn’t get it. I didn’t get it.

“I’m sure you would have remembered working with a Stephen Colbert. And, boy, did I need a gig at the time. Boy.”

Watch the interview in full here:

And the trailer for the upcoming “Friends” reunion special here: