First on LateNighter: Rosie O’Donnell’s upcoming week behind Jimmy Kimmel‘s desk now has a guest list—and it includes a particularly well-timed collection of Emmy nominees.
O’Donnell will kick off her four-night Jimmy Kimmel Live! guest-hosting stint Monday, August 17 with Hannah Waddingham and Ana Gasteyer. Jean Smart and Richard Gadd are set for Tuesday, followed by Charlie Day and Janelle James on Wednesday.
Thursday’s show will feature Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally, Shawn Hatosy, and Sydney James Harcourt.
Five of those guests—Smart, Gadd, James, Offerman, and Hatosy—are nominated for acting Emmys this year. Offerman is actually up twice, for Margo’s Got Money Troubles and Death by Lightning.
The timing isn’t coincidental: final-round voting for the 78th Emmy Awards begins at 9 a.m. PT on Monday, August 17—the same day O’Donnell starts her Kimmel run.
There are some O’Donnell connections in the mix, too. She and Mullally are longtime friends she appeared in the fourth season of Hacks, which stars Smart, and has previously singled out Harcourt’s stage work for praise.
One guest O’Donnell had hoped to book didn’t make the cut: children’s educator Ms. Rachel, whom she likened to “Mr. Rogers now for our contemporary time” and wanted to bring on for a doll giveaway. “She couldn’t make it or they couldn’t book it,” O’Donnell recently told Kara Swisher.
O’Donnell’s week marks her first-ever appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!—not just as host, but in any capacity. Kimmel announced her as part of his summer guest-host rotation in June, joking that the longtime Donald Trump antagonist would be “a special treat for our commander in chief” and asking her to “keep the hits coming.”
She has indicated she intends to oblige.
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