Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Fresh Air. I'm TV critic David Bianculli. It's been a busy week or so for ABC late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. After Kimmel made remarks in his monologue about various political responses to the murder of Charlie Kirk, President Donald Trump and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr complained publicly...
Chapter 2: What recent events led to the suspension and reinstatement of Jimmy Kimmel Live?
ABC affiliate station group owners Sinclair and Nexstar said they wouldn't carry the show, and ABC responded by announcing last week that Jimmy Kimmel Live was being taken off the air indefinitely.
But after a wave of support from Hollywood celebrities and threats of boycotts of Disney Plus and Hulu by angry streaming subscribers, Disney-owned ABC reversed course and returned Jimmy Kimmel Live to the airwaves Tuesday night.
Many cities still couldn't see the broadcast because those same ABC affiliate station group owners preempted his show in Seattle, Portland, New Orleans, Nashville, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. But those who could watch, and did, saw Kimmel in fine and feisty form.
That same attitude continued Wednesday night when Kimmel's monologue included Trump's social media response to Kimmel's on-air return the night before.
I did hear from one very special friend. Moments after we taped our show last night, the mad red hatter wrote, I can't believe ABC fake news gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. You can't believe they gave me my job back. I can't believe we gave you your job back.
And in the same monologue, Kimmel explained why he's made so much fun of Donald Trump. The reason, Kimmel said, is because he hates bullies.
For those who think I go too hard on Donald Trump, to the point where there are still a lot of people who think I should be pulled off the air for making fun of Donald Trump. So I want to explain, I talk about Trump more than anything because he's a bully. I don't like bullies. I played the clarinet in high school, okay? I just don't like them.
Donald Trump is an old-fashioned, 80s movie-style bully, taking your lunch money. And if you give it to him once, he'll take it again. Two things he loves, lunch and money.
Being at the center of a significant and ongoing First Amendment battle is not what most people would have predicted of Jimmy Kimmel. Not even, most likely, Kimmel himself. He began on radio and first became known for his work on two Comedy Central TV programs— One was the played-for- laughs game show Win Ben Stein's Money.
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Chapter 3: How did Jimmy Kimmel's childhood influence his late-night career?
Every one of my family thought that is what I would do. And I thought that's what I would do. But I read a Playboy magazine article. Dave was interviewed. And in that article, he said he started in radio. And I loved Howard Stern. And I thought, well, that seems like it might be fun.
And I was working at a clothing store in Las Vegas, and a couple days later, one of the guys that worked there said, hey, you know, I work at the college radio station, KUNV, in Las Vegas, and you'd be funny on the radio. Do you want to do something? And I said, yeah, I'd love to do something. And I went in, had a meeting with the program director, and they had a plan for me when I got there.
He said, I want you to do a half-hour show on Sunday nights and make fun of local celebrities. And I thought, oh, well, that's great. And the first time I did it, I'm sure it was terrible. I don't have the tapes, unfortunately, but I loved it. And my whole family was listening. When I got home, that experience, which I'm sure you've had when you realize people are listening to you, is magical.
And I was... I mean, I loved being in a radio station. I loved radio. I just could not get enough of it. I mean, I worked for years for free. I just loved every bit of it. And just the idea of broadcasting was really excited me.
Isn't that station a public station?
It is, yeah. Mostly jazz.
So Jimmy Kimmel started in public radio.
That's right.
Wow, that's great.
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Chapter 4: What was the significance of Jimmy Kimmel's interview with Terry Gross?
When you had to first figure out who are you as a late night host, like how did you figure out who you were going to be and what your trademarks were going to be?
It took a long time. One thing I did. One thing I did right is I knew that you had to have a desk and you had to have a couch and you had to have a band. And that I was smart enough to know. But that's where that intelligence ended. I honestly the rest of it. I didn't know how to do it. Almost no one on our staff knew how to do it, and I just kind of figured it out just to stay alive.
I mean, really, every night, every day, it was like trying not to drown, just trying to get a show on the air, trying to get guests to sit in the chair that night. sometimes getting good guests, sometimes getting terrible guests, sometimes feeling very bad about myself after the show and feeling like it was a mess and occasionally feeling like, well, that went okay, maybe I could do this.
I even went through a period where I secretly hoped ABC would cancel the show because I had a lot of people relying on me, and I still do, people that work on the show, and I couldn't really quit. Not that I would have, but the thought was always in my head that it would sure be great if somebody would put an end to my misery here.
What was the misery coming from? It was too hard or too much pressure?
It was relentless. It was relentless. And I'd been acclimated to that doing morning radio five and a half hours a day every morning. But just the... The amount to which I had to rely on others was difficult for me because when you do a talk show, you do have to rely on guests. You have to rely on people agreeing to be a part of it. And you have to ask them to go along with things.
You have to ask them to participate. Whereas in radio, you could do the show on your own. endlessly and indefinitely. If you have somebody, that's great, but you don't need to have somebody. So that was hard for me.
And it was hard to convince people to be on the show, partly, I think, because there was some fear that I was some kind of a monster that they'd imagined based on The Man Show, which is a show I did on Comedy Central. And people didn't understand that that show was... It was kind of a character. It was a specific show aimed at a specific audience, and it was tongue-in-cheek.
So it must be hard to be really stressed out because of the pressures of a new show and then come on at midnight as the relaxed midnight guy, like your day's over. I'm going to tell you some jokes and entertain you. Was it hard to be the relaxed, funny person you wanted to be after day after day of stress?
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