Jimmy Kimmel Is Late-night TV's Best Host
Source: FOXBusiness (Original Article)
NEW YORK — When Jimmy Kimmel started his late-night career at ABC, I was anything but impressed. I wrote in this space that the show was boorish — and so was he.
Five years later, I have come around. I now watch Kimmel as often as, if not more than, the other guys — Jay, Dave, Conan and Craig.
Why had I been so bitter? In late 2002, I included Kimmel in a list of media and entertainment people to watch in 2003, saying his show would “shake up the formulaic world of late-night television.” However, its debut on Disney’s (DIS) ABC was a major disappointment.
Within a week of the show’s first airing, I found Kimmel’s sophomoric humor and gimmicks annoying. I wrote in a Feb. 2, 2003, column: “It’s hard to remember the last time a ballyhooed show landed with such a thud. Kimmel looks just about as ill at ease on the air as I feel watching him at home.”
Anyone who loved him on Comedy Central’s “The Man Show” could remember how funny he could be. I knew he was capable of more than witless pranks.
Since that time, I don’t know if Kimmel has gotten better or if I’ve gotten much smarter. Regardless, he has emerged as my favorite late-night television host.
Kimmel, 40, a Brooklyn, N.Y., native who grew up in Las Vegas, is consistently engaging, humble, easy to watch — and, best of all, usually very funny. None of the current crop of late-night, comedy-oriented hosts seem more at ease with his guests. Kimmel doesn’t talk down to them. He doesn’t need to make them his foils or the butt of his jokes to get laughs.
Sometimes I watch Letterman interviewing Hollywood’s Flavor of the Month and I imagine him secretly rolling his eyes, wishing he was somewhere else and wondering how much traffic he’ll face on his drive home.
Leno, for his part, hosts with a frozen smile on his face. I suspect someone could build a fire on his desk and the suite life of zack and cody dvd he’d continue to nod his head …continue reading