When Jimmy Kimmel Live! returns to television on Monday (March 30) with remotely produced episodes, ABC‘s late-night show will not reclaim its regular 11:35 time slot but instead will continue to air at 12:05 AM at least through next week.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! swapped slots with ABC News’s Nightline, which normally starts at 12:35 AM, on March 17, a day into the late-night talker’s production suspension. The scheduling move has worked well for both programs.
With just four nights in the higher-trafficked 11:35 PM slot, Nightline was the most watched (2.8 million viewers) and highest-rated in adults 18-49 (0.5 rating) late-night program for the week of March 16. Meanwhile, with a potent Nightline lead-in, Jimmy Kimmel Live! last week delivered its strongest hiatus week in more than a year among total viewers (1.611 million) and Adults 18-49 (401,000) despite airing in the later 12:05 AM time period.
Guests on Jimmy Kimmel Live! next week include: Samuel L Jackson, Jennifer Aniston, Jeff Tweedy and Grouplove.
For the past two weeks, Kimmel has been doing daily homemade “quarantine minilogue” online videos. Starting with a short topical monologue and remote celebrity interviews, Kimmel earlier this week was the first late-night host to introduce in-person interviews by chatting with comedian Bill Burr from across the street to comply with social distancing rules.
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