ABC Extends “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” For Three More Seasons

Late-night television fans will have another three years of Guillermo, Aunt Chippy, “This Week in Unnecessary Censorship” and Matt Damon jokes as ABC extends Jimmy Kimmel’s overall contract. The host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! has agreed to a three-year deal with the network and will continue to host and executive produce the late-night show.

What’s happening:

  • ABC President Karey Burke announced today at the network’s Upfront press conference that Jimmy Kimmel has agreed to a three-year contract extension with the network.
  • The late night TV host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! will continue to serve as host and executive producer of the hour-long program.
  • This three-year extension means Live will run for at least 20 seasons.
  • The show is currently in its 17th season with Kimmel hosting since the its debut in 2003.  
  • Additionally, Kimmel, who recently launched Kimmelot Productions, will host and executive produce ABC’s highly anticipated live sitcom special, Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s ‘All in the Family’ and ‘The Jeffersons on Wednesday, May 22.
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs weeknights at 11:35 pm EDT/10:35 pm CDT on ABC.
  • Variety writes that in interviews Kimmel has hinted at ending the show, but clearly isn’t ready to take that step. The site points to a recent interview with late night host, Conan O’Brien’s where the Kimmel discussed the, “relentlessness of the job.”

What he’s saying:

  • Jimmy Kimmel in an interview on Conan O’Brien’s podcast: “The thing that scares me [about ending Jimmy Kimmel Live] is I don’t know how I’ll feel when I stop doing it… I could see myself going, ‘OK, that’s it, I’m done,’ and then going home and saying, ‘What did I do?’ I think that’s happened, I’ve seen people do that. That scares me. There’s that ‘what if.’ What if I stop doing and then I just don’t know what to do with myself?”

For more from the 2019 Upfronts, visit our Renewed or Cancelled Page