In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Jimmy Kimmel discussed his forthcoming role as Oscar host as well as his long-running show Jimmy Kimmel Live.
The 56-year-old comic has hosted almost everything in Hollywood, and he is presently headlining the 21st season of his own late-night show.
Jimmy Kimmel Live premiered on January 2003. Kimmel was a novice at the time, but has since established himself as a late-night mainstay. He is currently the longest-running late-night talk show host on air.
However, after 21 years, Kimmel acknowledged that he has been thinking about his future.
During an episode of “Strike Force Five,” the podcast he co-hosted with other late-night program hosts during the writers’ strike, he said he didn’t know how much he missed his job until he was no longer working.
“It’s hard to yearn for it when you’re doing it,” he said. “Wednesday night, I was very tired and I had all these scripts to go through — I had to revise and rewrite all these pitch ideas for the Oscars — and I was literally nodding off onto my computer. In those moments, I think, ‘I cannot wait until my contract is over.’ But then, I take the summer off or I go on strike, and you start going, ‘Yeah, I miss the fun stuff.’
“I think this is my final contract. I hate to even say it, because everyone’s laughing at me now — each time I think that, and then it turns out to be not the case. I still have a little more than two years left on my contract, and that seems pretty good. That seems like enough.”
As for the future Kimmel…
“He is very accomplished,” the host said. “He speaks Italian, he plays the harmonica beautifully. He is an expert fly-fisherman. He does all these different things that I know I’m not actually going to do. He’s drawn some graphic novels that were very well-received. He’s very busy — it’s funny, whenever I think of what I’m going to do when I stop working, it all involves more work.”
