Hi everyone and thank you for tuning in to episode 168 of awards chatteratter, the Hollywood Reporters Awards

podcast. I'm the host Scott Feinberg and my guest today is a member of one of the

most elite clubs in the world, that of people who host a late night talk show for one of the big three broadcast networks.

The very funny host for the past 15 years of ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live,

as well as the host of the 2017 Academy Award ceremony that aired on the network, Jimmy Kimmel.

Kimmel, who will turn 50 this year, has been a fixture on television for the past 20 years,

following many years before that in radio he made his name on several

comedy central offerings around the turn of the century serving as Ben Stein's

sidekick on the game show win Ben Stein's money from 1997 through 2000, co-creating and co-hosting the sketch

comedy program The Man Show from 1999 through 2003, and co-creating and voicing many of the

most memorable characters on crankyakers from 2002 through 2007.

His life changed in a major way, however, in 2003, when ABC recruited him somewhat out of the blue to serve as its late night host taking

over the 12.05 a.m. slot.

It took him a while to find his footing on the alphabet network, particularly with Nightline

as his lead in and the network's audience

increasingly shifting from blue-collar male to middle-class female, but he eventually got the

hang of things and started consistently providing laughs and amusement.

From viral videos like 2008's I'm

fucking Matt Damon and I'm fucking Ben Affleck to mean tweets

which became a recurrent feature starting in 2012.

In 2013 ABC moved Kimmel up from 12.05 a.m. to 11. 35 p.m. placing him opposite his childhood hero, CBS is David Letterman, and a guy he had major reservations about, NBC's Jay Leno.

Suffice it to say he held his own through the final years of their respective runs and continues to do so now

...