Jimmy Kimmel Live! is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, and broadcast on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). The nightly hour-long show tapes and is based at the El Capitan Entertainment Centre (ECEC), formerly the Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It debuted on January 26, 2003, as part of ABC's lead-out programming for Super Bowl XXXVII. For its first ten years, Jimmy Kimmel Live! aired at 12:05 a.m. ET/PT before moving to 11:35 p.m. on January 8, 2013.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! is produced by 12:05 AM Productions, LLC, in association with Kimmelot and 20th Television. Contrary to its title, the show has not regularly aired live since April 23, 2004, when censors were unable to properly bleep censor a barrage of swearing from actor Thomas Jane. It holds the title as the longest running late-night talk show on the network, having aired for more than three times as long as either The Dick Cavett Show (1969–1975) or Politically Incorrect (1997–2002). It is the second longest-running late-night talk show, by host, on any network surpassed only by The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
History
After Politically Incorrect was cancelled in 2002, ABC decided to create a talk show following Nightline. Kimmel, who had co-hosted the Comedy Central sketch comedy show The Man Show was in negotiations as host in May 2002 and was publicly announced in November 2002. The show premiered on January 26, 2003. Because Nightline traditionally began at 11:35p.m. ET/PT, Jimmy Kimmel Live! (and Politically Incorrect before it) originally started after midnight.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! is ABC's first attempt at a traditional late-night talk show since its attempt to revive The Dick Cavett Show in the 1980s. ABC had earlier attempted to directly compete with NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in the 1960s and 1970s with The Les Crane Show, which was more of a serious interview program than light entertainment, as well as The Joey Bishop Show (1967–1969), featuring Rat Pack member Joey Bishop with Regis Philbin as sidekick, and Jack Paar Tonite (1973) with Carson's predecessor as host of The Tonight Show.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! was stunted early on by an ABC affiliate body which was fulfilling existing syndication contracts for post-local news sitcom repeats and entertainment newsmagazines (thus delaying the show making the "Live!" title somewhat of a misnomer) and started behind the ratings of Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, but gradually moved up in the ratings into 2004, and became a fairly strong competitor, capturing about half the audience of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Nightline, which premiered in 1979 during the Iran hostage crisis, was able to compete with the Tonight Show, particularly on days when there were major news events or ongoing crises. The growth and development of cable news and the emergence of the internet and the 24-hour news cycle eroded Nightlines originally unique, and later preeminent position as a source for late evening national and international news and its value as a counterprogramming against Tonight and other late-night talk shows. As a result, on January 8, 2013, Jimmy Kimmel Live! switched places on ABC's schedule with Nightline. Since then, Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35 p.m. has been able to more directly compete with the Tonight Show and CBS's The Late Show.It's Jimmy Kimmel vs. Leno and Letterman in January; ABC moves 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' to 11:35, 'Nightline' to 12:35 , The Washington Post, August 21, 2012.
Following the subsequent retirements of Jay Leno in February 2014, David Letterman in May 2015, and Jon Stewart in August 2015, Kimmel became the second-longest serving current host in late-night television after Conan O'Brien.Jimmy Kimmel Signs On for 2 More Years with ABC , retrieved May 25, 2015 O'Brien's show ended in 2021, making Kimmel longest-tenured host. Overall, Kimmel is the third longest-running nightly late-night host on network television after David Letterman and Johnny Carson (Letterman hosted Late Night on NBC from 1982 to 1993 and Late Show on CBS from 1993 to 2015), and Jimmy Kimmel Live! is the second longest-running late-night show after The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, which aired thirty consecutive seasons on NBC from 1962 to 1992.
On April 15, 2009, after the March sweeps break, Kimmel began broadcasting in 720p high definition.
Jimmy Kimmel Live increasingly became political satire, especially in the opening monologues, during the mid-2010s after Donald Trump ran for President of the United States. Kimmel cited issues close to him regarding the American health care system including his son's congenital heart defect and health insurance.
On August 15, 2019, ABC and the show were fined $395,000 via a settlement by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for misusing the Emergency Alert System (EAS) tone on the October 3, 2018, episode.FCC Settles Investigations Into Misuse of Emergency Alert Tones August 15, 2019, fcc.gov
At the start of 2019, when Hearst Television's newest affiliation agreement for their ABC affiliates kicked in and forced them to give up their ability to delay the program for extended local newscasts or syndicated programming, the show now airs across the network on most stations at 11:35 p.m. ET/10:35 p.m. CT.
In May 2019, Kimmel and ABC agreed to extend his contract to host the show until 2022, which would be the show's twentieth season.
On March 16, 2020, the show suspended production due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Two weeks later, on March 30, the show resumed production from Kimmel's house, resuming its original 12:05 a.m. timeslot; Nightline returned to 11:35 p.m. On April 13, episodes were reduced to 30 minutes in length. Nightline moved to 12:05 a.m., followed by an encore of the 11:35 p.m. show.
On June 18, 2020, Kimmel announced he was taking a hiatus from the show; a series of guest hosts filled in with 30-minute episodes until he returned with the new television season after hosting the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards. This has since become a yearly tradition for the show's July and August shows under the more traditional hour format.
On September 21, 2020, Kimmel returned to the show, which also resumed taping from the Hollywood Masonic Temple without a studio audience, the show also resumed its 60-minute format, with Nightline returning to 12:35 a.m. In January 2021, pursuant to guidance from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health due to a local increase in cases, the show briefly returned to its at-home format. The show has since returned to a full audience as restrictions were lifted, with the requirement that attendees have their full vaccinations.
On February 21, 2024, Kimmel hinted that he may not renew his contract for further seasons after his current contract expires in May 2026 in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, stating that "I think this is my final contract, 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." However, in December 2025, Kimmel announced that he had extended his contract by one additional year, with it set to expire in May 2027.
On November 11, 2025, Jimmy Kimmel announced via Instagram that friend Cleto Escobedo III, who served as the show's bandleader since its inception in 2003, had died that day.
2025 suspension
On September 17, 2025, during an interview on conservative commentator Benny Johnson's podcast, FCC chair Brendan Carr warned that action could be taken against ABC for remarks by Kimmel during the monologue of the previous night's episode, in which he stated that the "MAGA gang" was "desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it."
Carr called Kimmel's comments "truly sick" and said his agency "has a strong case for holding Kimmel, ABC and network parent Walt Disney Co. accountable for spreading misinformation", arguing that Kimmel "appeared to be making an intentional effort to mislead the public that Kirk's assassin was a right-wing Trump supporter." Carr continued: "There's actions we can take on licensed broadcasters [that carry Jimmy Kimmel's show] and frankly, I think it's past time that a lot of these licensed broadcasters themselves push back on Comcast and Disney and say, 'Listen...we are not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out because we [are] running the possibility of fines or license revocations from the FCC.'" "When you see stuff like this—I mean, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead."
Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group both announced after the warning that they would pull the show from its ABC affiliates indefinitely in response to Kimmel's comments. Shortly afterward, ABC announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would be suspended indefinitely; Nexstar stated that its original decision was made unilaterally and was not influenced by any correspondence with the FCC or other agencies, however, it was pointed out that Nexstar has been seeking FCC approval for the acquisition of fellow television broadcaster Tegna Inc.
Deadline reported that Kimmel had refused to apologize, but had planned to clarify his comments and specifically call out Trump supporters on that night's episode, and that ABC "hope[d] that it will be able to have Kimmel back on the air 'soon', per sources, but whether Kimmel himself is willing is also unclear." Variety described the suspension coming after "several prominent conservatives have called for any critic of [Kirk's] work to be silenced, no matter how nuanced the argument may be". CNN reported that Disney employees and Kimmel's staff received death threats following Carr's remarks and were doxxed on social media and that the safety of employees and advertisers was a consideration. However, Disney said they were reportedly "hopeful" that Kimmel's show will return.
Numerous figures and organizations called for a boycott of Disney to pressure them to reinstate Kimmel, such as Indivisible and 50501, and there was a spike in Google searches to cancel Hulu and Disney+, along with an increase of posts on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and multiple Reddit threads on the topic. A Change.org petition, which called for people to boycott "ABC's shows and affiliated streaming platforms," gained 60,000 signatures as of September 19. Writers Guild of America West organized a protest outside Walt Disney Studios located in Burbank, California on September 18. Writers Guild of America, East also protested outside the headquarters for ABC in New York City on September 19.
Donald Trump, JD Vance, Dave Portnoy, former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, The Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh, and MAGA supporters backed Kimmel's suspension. On September 22, five days after the suspension and the aforementioned outcry, it was announced that Kimmel would return to the show the following night, though the show remained off the air on Nexstar and Sinclair affiliates. On September 26, media companies Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar Media Group announced that they would restore the show on their affiliates that evening.
Disney said that the return of the show drew 6.26 million viewers, despite not being aired to 23% of households due to preemptions.
2026 FCC scrutiny