Was Jimmy Kimmel fired from Jimmy Kimmel Live!? The late-night talk show has been on ABC since it premiered in 2003, and like most other similar shows, begins with an opening monologue in which Kimmel provides funny commentary on any relevant political or pop-culture events before transitioning to the main portion of the program in which the host interviews whichever celebrities are slated to appear. These celebrities include famous actors, professional athletes, beloved musicians, and even politicians.
Outside of his late-night talk show, Kimmel has been involved in other creative endeavors. He has hosted both the Emmys (2012, 2016, and 2020) and the Oscars (2017, 2018, and 2023) and also co-hosts a podcast called Strike Force Five with other late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, and John Oliver to support their employees during the WGA strike. Kimmel has also appeared in a number of films such as The Boss Baby as Ted Templeton and PAW Patrol: The Movie as Marty Muckraker. However, Kimmel is most known for being the host of his talk show, which features several outlandish gags, including his supposed “firing”.
Jimmy Kimmel Was Not Fired From Jimmy Kimmel Live!
In a 2023 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Kimmel joked in his opening monologue about how both Tucker Carlson from Fox News and Don Lemon from CNN were fired on the same day, stating “This is like if Ronald McDonald and Burger King got fired on the same day.” However, after Kimmel makes this joke, his monologue is interrupted by a News Alert in which the host’s sidekick, Guillermo, announces that Kimmel will be leaving his ABC talk show effective immediately. This sparked confusion as some believed that Kimmel was actually fired from his own show, though it was later confirmed that it was merely a scripted bit.
Other Jimmy Kimmel Live! Jokes Explained
This is not Jimmy Kimmel Live! ‘s first stunt that caused confusion. One of the most famous running jokes on the show is the “feud” between Kimmel and Matt Damon. The joke originally began as a gag in which at the end of each episode Kimmel would jokingly say, “Our apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time“, but quickly spiraled into numerous bits in which Kimmel and Damon openly mock or prank each other. There was even an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! in which Matt Damon became a guest host on the show under the guise that he “kidnapped” Kimmel.
These “fights” between Matt Damon and Jimmy Kimmel became so frequent that some believed that the two legitimately hated each other. However, like with his “firing”, this “feud” is merely a joke as it appears that the two appear to be on good terms, so much so that reportedly both Damon and Ben Affleck offered to pay Kimmel’s writers who were picketing during the 2023 Writers’ Strike. Overall, everything that happens on Jimmy Kimmel Live! is meant to be taken as a joke and nothing more.
