Jimmy Kimmel is staying put at ABC. The network’s late-night star has agreed to a new three-year contract extension to continue as host and executive producer of Jimmy Kimmel Live! With this new extension, Kimmel, already the longest-running late-night host currently on broadcast, will bring his ABC talk show to 20 seasons.
The ABC brass has to be breathing a little easier now because Kimmel is a pretty important asset to the network. He has hosted the Oscars twice and the Primetime Emmy Awards for the network and has appeared in 16 upfront presentations where he always has been the main attraction. When he signed his last re-up with ABC back in 2016, Kimmel had been hinting that he was considering retiring from the daily grind of doing a late-night show when that deal was up in 2019. There is no word if year 20 will be when Kimmel will sing his swan song.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!, currently in its 17th season, is a viral video juggernaut, with 10 billion views and 14 million subscribers on the show’s YouTube channel. Kimmel also has his longtime passion project set at the network which is a live sitcom special, Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s ‘All in the Family’ and ‘The Jeffersons, set to air on Wednesday, May 22.
