Jimmy Kimmel Live

Jimmy Kimmel Live! is a late-night talk show in the United States created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast from the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California.

Despite the name, the show is actually taped an hour before it begins airing in the Eastern Standard Time Zone, although it was originally live. The hour-long program premiered after Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003 on ABC. It airs weeknights at 12:05 a.m. in most parts of the country but the time does varies from station, resulting in the show beginning in the middle of competitors The Tonight Show and The Late Show with David Letterman, and ending in the middle of Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. The program currently follows Nightline on ABC. Some people speculated that Kimmel would move to the 11:35 p.m. slot after Ted Koppel retired, but it remains in its regular timeslot. The March 28, 2005 article of the New York Post announced that Actor/Writer/Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait was the show's new director, replacing original director Keith Truesdell. Goldthwait directed the show from 2004 to 2006 (Jeff Margolis now directs). Since joining, the ratings increased to about two million viewers per night or more. The numbers have jumped up to 50% with tough-to-attract teens, and is the number 3 show among teenagers (traling only behind The Real Orange County and Family Guy). Kimmel and Jill Leiderman are the show's executive producers. Leiderman has been co-executive producing the show since April, 2006. She replaced Duncan Gray, who was the co-executive producer since the show debuted in 2003. Gray left the show in January, 2006 to take a senior post at British-based ITV.

Music is provided by the band Cleto and the Cletones, led by Kimmel's childhood friend, Cleto Escobedo, Jr.. Kimmel's relatives, Frank Potenza, called Uncle Frank, and Sal Iacono, called Cousin Sal, are "characters" that appear on the program in most episodes. Uncle Frank is often set out to do reporting on the red carpet of a movie premiere or award show, where he will do things like mistake the celebrity he is talking to for a different person. Cousin Sal usually performs skits out of the studio, such as impersonating a store employee, purposely giving customers bad service, insulting them or giving them something they did not order/ask for. There is a musical performance at the end of the show, which is performed on either an indoor or outdoor stage, or on location (see "Pontiac Garage concert series" section below for more). Coors Light sponsors most of the show's musical performances. On some shows, there are comedians doing stand-up comedy, also at the end of the show, as well as the rarely seen "Future Talent Showcase." Early episodes of the show had a different announcer each night and a different co-host each week. Dicky Barrett, lead singer of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, is now the permanent announcer, and there are no longer co-hosts. The stage the show is filmed on has gone through many changes, from the addition of a platform in front of the stage for Jimmy to do his monologue, to various stage backgrounds. In January 2005, the show's original set (see photo on right), which had video screens in the background and the band performing on the left side of the stage, was replaced with the current set, which has a city in the background. The band now performs on the right side of the stage.

Andy Milonakis, a child-looking Internet phenomenon, was a regular on the show in 2003-2004. Another Internet phenomenon, Jay Maynard, the Tron Guy, was also on the show several times in 2004.

An occasional actor on the show, Anthony (Tony) Barbieri does a periodic piece, in which he plays a fictional character Jake Byrd, and insinuates himself into real life events around the country. Often he fools those at the event, and even the media, into believing he's a part of the story. Most often he portrays himself as an overly enthusiastic protestor about something or as a fan of somebody (or something) famous.

The show is also known for its parody of R. Kelly's song Trapped in the Closet, The Pizza.

This Week in Unnecessary Censorship

On Fridays there is a segment called "This Week in Unnecessary Censorship", a parody on the FCC's censorship rules, where TV clips are unnecessarily bleeped and blurred. Clips from news or events during the week will have a nominally inoffensive word or phrase bleeped and the mouths blurred in a way that makes it sound/look like the person in the clip had issued a profanity. Another similar obfuscation makes a wave to a crowd look like an inappropriate gesture, or blurring areas in where private parts are as if they were exposing themselves or nude.

Pontiac Garage concert series

In June 2005, Jimmy Kimmel Live partnered with Pontiac for its concerts from the Pontiac Garage outdoor stage in Hollywood. Streaming videos of off-air performances, which are shown in their entirety, can be seen by going to the show's Web site, jimmykimmellive.net and clicking on the Pontiac Garage.

Since June 2005, there have been musical performances that have taken place on location, outside of Hollywood, during the show's taping. One of these instances happened on February 17, 2006, when Hawthorne Heights performed in Chicago at the annual Chicago Auto Show. And most recently, Christina Milian performed the song, "Say I," on an outdoor stage in New York City's Times Square.

Jimmy Kimmel Live in Detroit

On January 31, 2006, Kimmel took the show on the road as it originated from the Gem Theatre in Detroit (the host city of Super Bowl XL). On that episode, which was the first of five from Detroit, his guests were David Alan Grier, Matt Hasselbeck of the Seattle Seahawks, and musical guest Kid Rock. On February 5, 2006, a special three-year anniversary episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, which was the last of five from Detroit, aired. Coincidentally, that episode, just like the premiere episode that is mentioned above on this page, aired after the Super Bowl. Relient K performed "Be My Escape" and had a contest on their website to attend Jimmy Kimmel Live for free.

Jimmy Kimmel Live after the Academy Awards

On March 5, 2006, Jimmy Kimmel Live aired a special post-Academy Awards edition, titled "Jimmy Kimmel Live after the Academy Awards". But instead of originating from its regular home at the El Capitan Theatre, the show taped at the El Portal Theatre, also in Los Angeles. On that episode, Kimmel's guests were Quentin Tarantino and Johnny Knoxville.

Grey's Anatomy Night

In an episode that originally aired on May 15, 2006, Kimmel staged a stunt on his show whereby a rattlesnake bites him on the hand. At first it looks real, but as it progresses, there are clues that it is faked. The show follows Kimmel as he is taken to the hospital. After a commercial break, continues to do the show from his hospital bed with the band, having traveled in the ambulance, at his bedside. The rush to get him in the hospital tied in with his guests from the ABC show, "Grey's Anatomy". At the end of the episode, the rattlesnake talked while the credits rolled. The episode was repeated on June 2, 2006 and July 7, 2006.

ABC affiliates not airing the show

Neither station runs the show because of the existing contracts they have with ABC. According to their contracts, the stations are only required to air ABC shows until 12:35 a.m. ET. Jimmy Kimmel Live runs until 1:05 a.m. ET, which would force the stations to relinquish time that they use for lucrative syndicated and/or local programming. (In particular, WSB uses the slot for a re-run of its 11:00 p.m. ET newscast.) A press release from WSB in 2004 claimed that the station hoped to resolve the situation and air the show, but there is no indication of any current negotiations on the matter. Both stations are owned by Cox Enterprises. In November of 2005, Cox station WFTV in Orlando began airing the show after initially refusing to do so. Some ABC stations owned by Allbritton Communications Company did not begin airing the show until April 12, 2004. KTUL in Tulsa, Oklahoma did not air the initial post-Super Bowl episode, or most of the first few months of the show. Tulsa's WB affiliate, KWBT aired the show at 12:05 a.m., and would cover the ABC logo on the bottom of the screen with their own station logo. KTUL began airing the show in 2005.

Also, Chicago affiliate WLS-TV airs the show at 1:05 a.m. ET instead of the usual 12:05 a.m. ET. This is because a rerun of the day's Oprah Winfrey show airs at 12:05 a.m. due to her popularity in Chicago. North Dakota stations WDAY and WDAZ air the show at 1:08 a.m ET, with The Insider and paid programming airing in the usual timeslot. KMBC in Kansas City airs the show at 1:35 a.m. ET following reruns of Frasier, Will & Grace, and Sex and the City, and Nightline. Finally, WEHT in Evansville, Indiana airs the show at 12:35 a.m. ET, after airing a rerun of Seinfield and Nightline. All of the cities showing the show on a delay are in the Central time zone (CT).

Matt Damon...

At the end of the show, on a somewhat frequent, yet not daily, basis, Jimmy thanks the guests as usual, but then adds "Our apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time." The joke of course being that Matt Damon was not scheduled to appear that night. It is currently unknown why he does this and if it is because Damon refused to appear on the show, or if it is just an inside joke.

External links

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