Jimmy Kimmel’s Wife and Collaborator Molly McNearney Weighs In On Retirement Talk

Jimmy Kimmel has resolved to stop publicly mulling retirement out of consideration for his staff, but his wife and collaborator Molly McNearney has some thoughts of her own on the host’s possible exit from Jimmy Kimmel Live! when his current contact ends.

Speaking with Variety’s Mike Schneider at an FYC event event in L.A. last week, McNearney, who serves as head writer and executive producer of JKL, seemed to be just as ambivalent about Kimmel retiring as the host himself has been in recent years.

“I do think we need him,” McNearney said, referring to Kimmel having become one of the more prominent voices holding truth to power in the Trump era. “I would love for him to stay.”

But, she added, “I also want him to be able to relax and fly fish and not listen to Trump everyday. So I want whatever’s best for him. But yeah, I selfishly want him to fight the good fight as long as he can.”

Discussing the pressures of the Trump news cycle, McNearney noted that it often sidelines the kind of evergreen comedy segments that were once a mainstay of Jimmy Kimmel Live!

“When you wake up in the morning and it’s like, ‘Donald Trump wants to put people in Alcatraz,’ you’re like, ‘Oh, I don’t think we should do the funny bit on the Boulevard today,” said McNearney. “We want to deliver these funny bits and these things that can take people out of the news, but when you’re so overwhelmed by the news, you’re like ‘Wait, we’ve got to call him out on that thing he just said today.”

Kimmel has been mulling retirement for years now. In 2024 he told the Los Angeles Times, “I think this is my final contract,” but as he noted at the time, he’s changed his mind in the past. Last month, he told Rolling Stone that “there’s no point in talking about it,” citing the unease his past public statements caused his staff.

Kimmel’s current contract will bring him through the 2025-2026 season.