Jimmy Kimmel kicked off his week stay in Austin at SXSW by sitting down for an interview with KROQ’s Kevin Ryder, the host of the morning show that gave Kimmel his start. The host revealed a lot about his late night exploits, including the show’s rocky start at ABC. From The Hollywood Reporter:
“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…
“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.”
THR notes that it’s been 13 years since then and now Kimmel has a show with viral potential and popularity that rivals fellow hosts like Jimmy Fallon and David Letterman. The show has created several popular segments and memorable moments, but few compare to the super popular Mean Tweets segments.
The idea reportedly started with Kimmel’s wife an co-head writer Molly McNearney and has since bloomed into a must see highlight for the show. The most recent edition featuring President Obama has proven to be very popular, amassing 12 million views since airing Thursday:
“We gave them about 20 mean tweets, and they picked the tweets they wanted to read,” he said. “He said, ‘These are the meanest tweets you have? I can find a lot more mean tweets than this.’ “(via)
I think the interesting bit is how there are celebrities and publicists that don’t want to take part in Mean Tweets. I’m sure there’s plenty that are kicking themselves in the ass for missing out, unless they’ve got a thin enough skin that such an action would result in a hospital visit. It’s possible.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
