Jimmy Kimmel was backstage Tuesday before his annual—and much welcomed, given the challenges he faced over the past year—return to the Disney upfront presentation at the Javits Center in Manhattan.
And he was nervous.
Not about the combination stand-up set/sales pitch to the gathered ad buyers. That’s a walk in Central Park—in daytime—for Kimmel at this point.
He was nervous for his 11-year-old daughter Jane, making her first real show-biz turn, first to introduce her current singing idol, Olivia Rodrigo, and then to perform a few bars of duet with that red-hot star, closing out her three-song mini-concert for ad buyers at the event.
Kimmel needn’t have been worried because Jane killed it; no surprise, given the talent genes. Her mom is longtime Jimmy Kimmel Live! head writer-executive producer Molly McNearney.
Of course, from the start of his performance, Kimmel didn’t shy from referencing his year of public conflict with the leader of the free world, who regularly takes a break from wars, inflation, and ballroom dreams to insist Disney rid itself of this troublesome late-night host. Kimmel opened by acknowledging that everybody in the place might have been surprised to see him still standing.
But standing up is now what he does for a living—and for principle.
His ongoing conflict with Donald Trump has transformed Kimmel into a national figure beyond television, one who needs to take care with every step and utterance because he knows he’s tweaking the nose of power, as well as one being celebrated all over Hollywood for showing the spine lacking in other prominent quarters of American public life.
It’s now routine for guests to come on the show and open the conversation with sincere expressions of praise and gratitude, elevating Kimmel to something akin to “leader of the resistance,” as Kimmel’s idol David Letterman has called him.
Those are not comfortable moments for Jimmy Kimmel, who is the dead opposite of a credit-and-praise hound. “I can’t even accept it when people say something I did was really funny.”
So when no less a giant film star than Meryl Streep appeared recently and began by calling him a “Knight Templar” and telling him, “We all depend on you,” Kimmel immediately tried to change the subject. “I almost squirmed out of my skin,” Kimmel said. “It’s totally appreciated but that’s just not how I see myself.”
Of course he knows that’s the way many people see him now, modeling behavior that law firms, academic institutions and corporate giants have run from under pressure from the White House. His take: “You can’t back down, even once.”
While Jane and her mom were fighting nerves, staff members who had accompanied Kimmel to the event hung out eating much-desired New York pizza (Jimmy himself opened about 12 boxes in a vain search for his favorite, clam pizza). They shared stories of the pressure the show has been under from the unwanted attentions of the White House and the FCC. Big credit went to Kimmel’s cousin Sal for coming up with the best metaphor: “It’s like you’re driving and you see a police car constantly following right behind you.”
Somehow, Kimmel is managing to still have some fun, like his funny and appealing appearance Monday on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show accompanied by the others from Strike Force Five, the podcast featuring five late-night host-amigos, Kimmel, Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, and Seth Meyers.
After the show, they reassembled upstairs at the Ed Sullivan Theater to record a new edition of the podcast. That obviously led to questions about more SFF podcasts in the future. “I can’t imagine not keeping doing it,” Kimmel said.
He thought of a potential new wrinkle: “The appearance on the air with Stephen went so well, and was so much fun, it made me think maybe we should do them in front of a live audience.”
The only downside, a big downer side, really, was the sadness attached to Colbert’s forced exit from his still very popular CBS show. Aside from what they all see as an injustice to their friend, there’s the collateral damage. “People are going to be losing jobs,” Kimmel said. “Where do you go if you write jokes for a living?”
Jimmy Kimmel Live! only has so many jobs to go around. But—for a while at least, unless outside forces intervene—it will be around, with Kimmel having signed a new one-year contract.
The prospect that the show stands to benefit from Colbert’s nightly absence is not lost on the host or his team. They understand that given how in sync the two shows have been with the political messages conveyed by their nightly monologues, some portion of Colbert fans may be drifting Kimmel’s way.
Not that Kimmel wouldn’t happily pass on that potential gift if the choice had been his.
During the SFF reunion on Colbert’s stage Monday night, when the joking turned to speculation about what Stephen might do next, he said he could be a guest on the others’ shows.
And Kimmel said: “You could host my show!”
By the next day, a rumor was circulating that this was really a thing, and that Colbert was going to be invited to step in as a guest host during the vacation period in the summer when the Kimmel show stays on the air while the host takes some time off to travel the world and expunge the image of Brendan Carr (the FCC chairman trying to get him canceled) from his brain.
The exchange was truly a joke, Kimmel said during our backstage conversation. Then he added: “But I would certainly be for it.”
It may be a little late to arrange, though those guest weeks have a somewhat unpredictable starting date. Kimmel said they will kick off after the NBA Finals, which ABC broadcasts, are wrapped up. In four games sooner; in seven games later.
Most of the guest hosts, who normally do a week on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, are already lined up.
But talk about stunt casting. “Colbert steps in for Kimmel” would be an eye-catching headline and definitely would qualify as event television.
Might even keep occupants of the White House up even later venting spleen and rending garments online.
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