Jimmy Kimmel has openly flirted with the idea of retiring for some time now, but he still “fear[s] the day” after his final curtain call comes.
During an interview on Politickin’—a podcast hosted by the unexpected trio of football player Marshawn Lynch, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and their agent Doug Hendrickson—Kimmel opened up about what drives his reluctance to leave late night.
“I will have a hard time when it’s over,” he told the trio. “It worries me. That’s part of the reason why I keep going.”
The host has led Jimmy Kimmel Live! since 2003, making it the longest-running late-night show still on the air.
Kimmel reflected on how he has convinced himself in the past that his next contract will be his last, only to change his mind. “I wind up signing another contract… because I fear that day,” he explained. “That Monday after my final show, when it’s like, ‘Now what am I gonna do?’”
Kimmel signed his most recent contract in 2022—a three-year renewal that keeps him on the air through 2025. At the time, he joked that the deal allowed him three years of “quiet quitting.”
A year later, on his Strike Force Five podcast, Kimmel revealed that he was going “stir-crazy” as Jimmy Kimmel Live! was sidelined amidst the writers’ strike. “I was very intent on retiring right around the time where the strike started,” he told his fellow late-night hosts, “and now I realize… it’s kind of nice to work.”
But even after that realization, Kimmel doubled down on his inclination to retire earlier this year. “I think this is my final contract,” he told the Los Angeles Times in February. “I hate to even say it, because everyone’s laughing at me now—each time I think that, and then it turns out to be not the case. I still have a little more than two years left on my contract, and that seems pretty good. That seems like enough.”
But as Kimmel pointed out on Politickin’, his uncertainty about what comes next keeps him hesitant. “There aren’t a huge number of options for late night hosts after the shows are over,” he said.
One option for a post-late-night Kimmel? Returning to the Oscars. While he turned down the gig this year so he can focus on his talk show, he’s not ruling out a return to hosting duties in the future.
