Jimmy Kimmel helped honor his partner in work and life as he presented Molly McNearney with a Gracie Award this week.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s co-head writer and executive producer, McNearney has been married to the host since 2013. At the Gracies, she took home the award for Best Writer – Unscripted.
McNearney can now add that award to a long list of honors she has netted over her career, which includes 15 Emmy nominations, and a win for her work producing The Oscars in 2024.
Held by the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation, the Gracie Awards celebrated its fiftieth anniversary this year. This year’s recipients were honored at a ceremony in Los Angeles Monday, hosted by comedian Fortune Feimster.
Kimmel took the stage to present the award to McNearney, juggling jokes with sentimentality as he paid tribute to her.
“Molly is responsible for some of the most enduring comedy segments on our show, including ‘Mean Tweets,’ which is something that she came up with,” Kimmel told the crowd. “So many times, Molly has been sitting in an audience like this—in this very room in fact—as I have been showered with adulation. So it is very exciting for me to be able to give her something besides HPV tonight.”
Kimmel went on to call her “an advocate for women in the industry and women in general,” as well as “the person I trust the most—both at home and at work.”
“She is proof that becoming emotionally entangled with your boss is always a very good idea,” he added.
McNearney shoved Kimmel out of the way after being handed the award, before telling the crowd “I don’t know that man. I’ve never met that man.” Then, talking about the undue pressure of appearance standards placed upon women, McNearney got one more jab in. “We’re too hard on ourselves. We’re going to take all this off in a couple hours,” she said, motioning to her outfit. “Unless you’re married to Jimmy Kimmel, then you’re going to keep it on just for protection.”
But McNearney doubled down on the seriousness of her point. “If you don’t love the way you look tonight, I hope you can still manage to love you,” she told attendees. “I am going to keep fighting for reproductive freedom where there is no dress code. Because that is what matters.”
Kimmel also took to social media to congratulate his wife publicly after the ceremony, calling her win “well-deserved” (but also threatening legal action over the shove).
On the red carpet before the event, McNearney revealed to ABC6 that she hadn’t vetted her husband’s intro speech in advance, leaving her unsure what to expect.
“I’m really lucky that I get to work for a show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, that lets me amplify my voice, and literally push Jimmy out of the way and stand in his spot for a couple minutes,” she also told the outlet.
Per ABC6, McNearney’s award was one of 23 wins handed out to Disney at this year’s event.
Also among the list of winners at this year’s Gracies was Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. Given The Daily Show’s rotating correspondent-guest host format which includes Desi Lydic, it’s one of only two current national late-night shows that is—albeit only sometimes—hosted by a woman. The only other, Taylor Tomlinson’s After Midnight—is leaving the airwaves next month.
