Writers' Strike Actually Saved Jimmy Kimmel's Late-Night TV
The iconic host was eager to retire.
It's no secret that the late-night talk show industry is currently in flux. Many people are no longer interested in watching these shows on a regular basis, opting instead for podcasts or YouTube. Moreover, some fans believe that after David Letterman and Conan O'Brien stepped down from their late-night roles, the hosts that have replaced them haven't quite filled their shoes, with their respective programs generating less and less hype with every passing year.
Now, it seems that Jimmy Kimmel tried to retire from his ABC show earlier this year. However, he chose to stay on, intending to entertain his audience a while longer. Jimmy points to the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes as the primary reason for his change of heart.
A Sudden Change Of Mind
According to Jimmy, he was contemplating retirement because he got tired after working at ABC for over two decades. He shared this sentiment with fellow hosts Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, and Seth Meyers on their newly launched Spotify podcast, Strike Force Five.
'I was very intent on retiring right around the time where the strike started. And now, I realise, oh yeah, it's kind of nice to work. You know when you are working, you think about not working,' Kimmel said.
And while the idea that Jimmy is simply afraid of losing his high-paying job during the strikes sounds quite reasonable, some fans doubt his words from the start, thinking that he is simply using the ongoing strikes as a means to promote himself.
Contractual Obligations
People are sceptical about Jimmy's true motives not because they don't like him but because of some factual discrepancies:
Just last year, Jimmy signed a contract with ABC to host his late-night show for three more years, so just quitting and cancelling his show this year would have been completely out of the question for him as had he done so, ABC would have sued him for millions of dollars for breach of contract, and they would have won.