The first year of Jimmy Kimmel Live! was not all peaches and cream.
Jimmy Kimmel revealed during SXSW that he wanted ABC to cancel the show. “I was burnt out, exhausted, terrified,” he said, explaining that on some days, he would be without a guest just hours before he was supposed to go live. “I wanted them to cancel it, so I didn’t have to quit.”
13 years later, Jimmy Kimmel was able to find his niche. Speaking to a large crowd at the annual festival, Jimmy Kimmel explained where the comedian first started.
“There was almost nothing planned for my first show,” he remembered, noting that he was going to just sit down and “hold up newspaper articles and bullshit my way through my show.”
It is interesting to point that Jimmy Kimmel never dreamed of becoming a talk show host. “My goal was never to host a late night talk show,” he said. “My goal was just to keep watching a late-night talk show. It never occurred to me that anyone other than David Letterman or Johnny Carson would have a late night talk show.”
Over the past five years Jimmy Kimmel has become a hit. His viral videos, and Mean Tweets segment, Kimmel has found a unique way to entertain audiences. His latest Mean Tweets video has 20 million views on YouTube and the talk show hosts credits his wife and co-head writer for coming up with the idea.
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