First on LateNighter: Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s Emmy sizzle reel takes a bit of a different tack this year, featuring not clips of Kimmel, but rather clips of Donald Trump talking about Jimmy Kimmel—and as you might imagine, he doesn’t exactly give a ringing endorsement.
“Jimmy Kimmel, no talent,” Trump says at the start of the video. “Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person.”
From there, it’s a rapid-fire compilation of the president’s many attacks on the late-night host.
“He had very bad ratings, and they should have fired him a long time ago,” Trump says in one clip. “His ratings are terrible. He shouldn’t be on television.”
“He’s the worst host in the history of the Academy Awards,” he says in another.
The reel also includes Trump calling Kimmel “a whack job,” “a dope,” “stupid Jimmy Kimmel,” and “the ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel,” along with multiple calls for ABC and Disney to fire him.
“I can’t believe ABC fake news gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back,” Trump says in one excerpt from a Truth Social post. “Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad ratings.”
Eventually, the montage devolves into a supercut of Trump simply saying Kimmel’s name over and over: “Kimmel. Jimmy Kimmel. Jimmy Kimmel. Jimmy Kimmel. Jimmy Kimmel.”
But the FYC video saves perhaps its strongest endorsement for last.
“If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent,” Trump says, “then I don’t think I should be president.”
The video arrives just as final-round Emmy voting gets underway. Voting opened Monday, August 17, with Jimmy Kimmel Live! heading into the final round with a show-record six nominations.
The ABC series is nominated for Outstanding Variety Series, Writing for a Variety Series, Directing for a Variety Series, Technical Direction and Camerawork for a Series, Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Series, and Production Design for a Variety or Reality Series.
The six nominations cap an unusually eventful season for Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which ABC briefly suspended last September and which has remained a frequent target of Trump and his hand-picked FCC chair Brendan Carr ever since.
Final-round Emmy voting continues through August 26 at 10 p.m. PT. The 78th Emmy Awards air September 14 on NBC and Peacock.
