Jimmy Kimmel on Starting a Whole New Late-Night Shift
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When “Jimmy Kimmel Live” makes its debut in the 11:35 p.m. time slot on ABC Jan. 8, it will mark just the latest in a series of seismic shifts that have altered TV’s late-night landscape. In just a few years’ time, should CBS’s David Letterman or NBC’s Jay Leno decide to step down has this been rumored? If so, let’s note that Mr. Kimmel could be the best-known face on broadcast in the time period. Below, in a lightly edited interview, the host offers his take on doing live ads on his program, going viral and the continued splintering of wee-hours TV.
Ad Age: What, if anything, about the show will change when you move half an hour earlier? Is there anything you have to do to appeal to the broader demographic, including older viewers, who might tune in more strongly earlier in the night?
Mr. Kimmel: That mandate has not been given, and even if it had, I would ignore it. I just think that when you try to guess who your viewers are and you try to adapt to an imaginary group, you run into trouble. We’ve been doing the show for 10 years. We’ve had a chance to figure out what works for us and what doesn’t work, and I think that we would be very, very foolish to make wholesale changes just because we’re moving up 25 minutes.
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