Fashion (Jimmy Kimmel) Rodney Muñoz Groomer Stephanie Fowler Digital technician Gray Hamner Photo assistants Noah Schutz, Rickey Tompkins, Eric Hargrove Equipment rental Milk LA Retouching 795 Photo, Inc. Special Thanks Sienna Sanders
Jimmy kimmel Program: Jimmy Kimmel Live Number of episodes taped: 1,978 regular shows and about 100 specials. What’s your ideal demographic? ABC shoots for 18- to 49-year-olds. What are your most popular segments? “Unnecessary Censorship” is something where we bleep words out to make them seem like curse words. I have a running feud with Matt Damon that people seem to enjoy. We also do something called “Make a Baby Sparkle,” where we cover a baby in glue and roll him in glitter. I just made that up. What’s the most unusual thing you’ve attempted on the air for the sake of entertainment? We had a fake animal trainer come out with a deadly snake, but it was actually a robot we rigged to jump out of the crate and bite me, and then we cut to commercial. Everyone was horrified. Then I got into an ambulance and went to the Grey’s Anatomy hospital. Take us through an average day on the set: At 10 am I go through ideas and jokes from the writers, then I have a meeting with the executive producers and the segment producers to talk about the guests. Then there’s rehearsal, I shower, I go through another round of jokes, edit scripts, approve video, and then start writing the monologue, at 4. We have that done at 6, and we shoot at 7. It’s almost like a newspaper. You just kind of fill in the slots and everything
has a deadline. Do you have any rituals before or after a taping? We have something we do before, where everyone who’s in my office before the show does a new chant every day—usually an inside joke about someone in the room—and then everyone chants “BEST SHOW EVER” as I leave. Who have been some of your favorite guests? I really love some of the older guys, like Don Rickles, Mel Brooks, and Carl Reiner, because those are the guys I watched on talk shows when I was a kid, so it really makes me feel like I’m a talk show host, it’s like talk show fantasy camp. Who is your dream guest? I’ve always wanted to have Madonna on the show. I started going through puberty just around the time that Madonna emerged and I’ve always had a…maybe not a crush, maybe a masturbatory obsession. Steve Martin and Bill Murray, you can also add them to the masturbatory obsession category. What is the most fun part of the show? I like to cook, so it’s a great opportunity to meet chefs, you get these world-class chefs coming to your show and teaching you how to make something. Also the bands, you have your own little concert at your workplace almost every night. What are the challenges in doing late night TV? It’s a lot more work than it looks like it is, and the key is making it look easy. We make it as hard on ourselves as
we possibly can. Who is your biggest hero or influence? David Letterman and Howard Stern are probably my biggest influences. I did 12 years of radio before television and a lot of what I learned I learned from Howard. He involves everyone in the production and in the on-air product and that kind of honest approach he takes to broadcasting, I think, is unprecedented. And also Dr. Maya Angelou. Do you have any inside jokes hidden in your set? We re-did our set, but for many years we had Gary Coleman’s sweatpants, which I bought off him for $550. They were framed and hanging in the studio. Tell us something about your production that viewers might not expect: There are all sorts of shenanigans going on in the green room, depending on who the guest is that night. Usually when there’s a rapper there’s a big cloud of green smoke to walk through before you get to the stage. Would you ever host the Oscars? Only if they ask very, very nicely. Give us a sign-off: My version of “Seacrest out?” Goodnight, sweet prince!
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