Al Franken - BEST OF: Jimmy Kimmel on His Career in Comedy!

[Rhiannon12866]

In this Best Of episode, we revisit our 2020 conversation with Jimmy Kimmel! We go through his long career, beginning with his start in radio and his transition to television.

We discuss the birth of Jimmy’s late night show back in 2003 and how, in his own words, the show was "genuinely terrible.” With time, Jimmy figured it out and established a template for what makes a good show and learned what makes a good guest versus a bad guest.

A major turning point for Jimmy was when his son battled health challenges. He became more vocal on issues like healthcare, which led to him butting heads with the GOP over their attempts at repealing the Affordable Care Act.

While this interview was in 2020, Jimmy continues to butt heads with the GOP, which resulted in his censorship battle with ABC and the Trump administration earlier this year. - 12/28/2025.


READ what I wrote when Kimmel was (temporarily) taken off air: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/trump-attack-political-satire-kimmel-colbert-1235431290/