Jimmy Kimmel says he was 'intent on retiring'being a late-night show before the Writers Guild went on strike, but he has since changed his mind.
Kimmel asked Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, and Seth Meyers on Wednesday's show if they were getting restless not working because of the Hollywood strikes. When the writers' strike started in May, there were no more late-night shows.
Jimmy Kimmel wearing a gray suit The Writers' and Actors' Strike may have caused Jimmy Kimmel to stay in the game in a way that wasn't planned. Kimmel was on the first episode of "Strike Force Five" on Spotify. He and fellow show hosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver had a group discussion over Zoom. During that talk, Jimmy Kimmel said that he felt like his time as the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! was up, but that was before the strikes started. Kimmel told his co-hosts on Wednesday: “„I was very intent on retiring right around the time where the strike started. And now I realize, oh yeah, it’s kind of nice to work. You know when you are working, you think about not working.- Jimmy Kimmel
Kimmel has been the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! since 2003. He is also the executive producer of the show. Meyers, who is 49, then asked:
“„C'mon, you are the Tom Brady of late night…you have feigned retirement…. Are we to take you at your word?- Seth Meyers
But the author of "The Serious Goose" said:
“„I was serious, I was very, very serious.- Jimmy Kimmel
Then he made a joke about how he likes to take a break every summer and "get paid" for it.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! hit the 20-year mark at the end of January. It began in 2003 as a replacement for Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect and was ABC's first late-night show in a long time. The strikes forced the show to go on pause. Jon Stewart, around whom ABC had planned to build a late-night show, lost the job to Kimmel.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! was at the bottom of the ratings when it started at midnight, but it climbed the charts and took over Nightline's 11:35 p.m. time spot in 2013. Since Conan O'Brien's show finished, Jimmy Kimmel is now the longest-running late-night host still working, and Live! is the longest-running late-night show in ABC's history.
Writers in the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike in May because the union couldn't reach a new contract deal with Hollywood companies and streaming services. Because of this, the late-night shows, which depend on writers for speeches and funny bits, all stopped airing in May. The union for 160,000 actors and performers, SAG-AFTRA, went on strike in July because it couldn't reach a new contract deal with big studios. Wages, streaming residuals, and how AI is used are still at the heart of the standoff.
“„The reason we’re doing this is because we’re financially supporting members of our staff. Everyone that works on a TV show is out of work right now, and so all the money that we make on this show goes to them.- Jimmy Kimmel
The first episode of "Strike Force Five" came out on Wednesday, and it will be available on most of the big podcast sites. Spotify said that the series will have at least 12 shows and that each host will be the moderator at different times.
Jimmy Kimmel got tired of doing the same thing every week on his show, so he quit. If not for the two Hollywood strikes, he would have gotten what he wanted. Now that he can't do his popular late-night show on ABC because of the strikes, he's having second thoughts about leaving.
In the first episode of Spotify's Strike Force Five show, which came out on August 30, Jimmy Kimmel said that he was "set on retiring." In the podcast, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver talk at a panel on Zoom.