LOS ANGELES – Jimmy Kimmel is no defender of democracy.
At least he turned down the title when a reporter suggested he might be.
“These are weighty thoughts, and I often push them aside,” he shared backstage this past weekend at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. “I don’t really see myself as a defender of democracy.”
He said he’s doing something much smaller when he lays into President Donald Trump.
“I’m giving this guy a little poke, and he deserves it, and I enjoy it, and I hope that people enjoy it too,” Kimmel said.
As the 57-year-old television host spoke, he held his fourth Primetime Emmy Award, which he earned for outstanding game show host for “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” He’s also in the running for another award this Sunday for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Kimmel is, undoubtedly though, a defender of Stephen Colbert — and voted for him too.
When his friend and fellow late-night host Colbert saw his “Late Show” canceled in July, just three days after he criticized a deal between Trump and CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global, as they sought approval for a merger, Kimmel expressed his displeasure with CBS and praised Colbert. Executives maintained the decision was due to financial reasons.
Later, he put up a billboard in Los Angeles saying, “I’m voting for Stephen,” signaling his support for his competitor in the Emmy talk series category.
Kimmel was on a long vacation from ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” when Colbert’s cancellation happened, but weighed in when he returned last week.
“Suddenly, CBS announced unexpectedly that ‘The Late Show’ was losing $40 million a year and, as if by magic, received FCC approval to sell their company, which was their goal,” he remarked.
He also responded to Trump, who posted on Truth Social, “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next,” Trump wrote. “Has even less talent than Colbert.”
“Oh, you sensitive, pudgy little teacup, did we hurt your feelings?” Kimmel quipped on his show. “You want us off the air because we make jokes about you. I thought you were opposed to cancel culture.”
Somehow none of Kimmel’s Emmys are for the late-night show he’s hosted for 22 years — though most of his 27 nominations are.
One is for hosting the Oscars. Two are for the special all-star recreations of old sitcoms he produced between 2019 and 2021, “Live in Front of a Studio Audience.” Asked if he’s given any thought to reviving those, he said not without his partner in the project, Norman Lear, who died at age 101 in 2023.
“It would be too emotional to do it without Norman,” Kimmel said. “I don’t know if my heart could take it.”
He’s also a three-time Emmys host — a job that this year will go to Nate Bargatze when the show airs on CBS.
And he won a daytime Emmy as best game show host for his work on Comedy Central’s “Win Ben Stein’s Money” way back in 1999, before the award got promoted to primetime.
“When we won that Emmy, we went on the air the same week ‘South Park’ went on the air, and Comedy Central was not a channel that many people watched,” Kimmel said at the Creative Arts Emmys. “And we were up against these titans, the same shows we’re up against now, ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and ‘Jeopardy.’ We didn’t know anyone was watching the show. I think it was the first Emmy Comedy Central ever won.”
Asked how long he plans to keep his current show going, he kept it vague.
“I’m not prepared to answer that question, but it is something I think about a lot,” he said with a smile. “Each day is a new adventure, and I kind of take them as they come, is that a good way of dodging the question?”
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