Late-night TV’s longest-running host and a Brooklyn native, Jimmy Kimmel, is heading back home for a week of shows starting tonight after returning to television with his best ratings ever.
The run features a star-studded guest roster, including Bruce Springsteen — appearing for the first time in six years — and Jeremy Allen White, who plays the Boss in the biopic “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.”
ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” will film in front of a live studio audience at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House from Sept. 29 through Oct. 3.
Kimmel typically broadcasts from the El Capitan Entertainment Centre on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Although his show originates in California, Kimmel was born and raised in Brooklyn, growing up in Mill Basin as the eldest of three children of Joan (née Iacono) and James John Kimmel.
“I was born here. A lot of my family is here,” he told Variety in 2018 about Brooklyn. “Probably more than anything, it’s fun for us all to be here together and to eat and to hang out and to go to great bars.”
Many late-night shows originate in New York City, but Kimmel said at the time that Brooklyn “has a little bit of a different feel than shows that are in the city.”
This marks the seventh time “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” has returned to Brooklyn to broadcast from BAM and the first since the show was briefly suspended after comments Kimmel made in a monologue about the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The show drew 6.26 million viewers on its return, the largest audience in its 22-year history, according to Nielsen. Kimmel’s monologue from that night topped 21 million views on YouTube, moving into break-the-internet territory.
The blockbuster ratings came despite Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcasting not airing the show. Sinclair brought Kimmel back on air Friday, saying the decision followed “thoughtful feedback from viewers, advertisers, and community leaders representing a wide range of perspectives.”
The company proposed a network-wide independent ombudsman but said ABC and Disney have not agreed to that plan.
Kimmel has created some memorable Brooklyn moments over the years, including orchestrating a 2015 reunion of Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd as Marty McFly and Doc Brown from 1985’s “Back to the Future.”
“It was the loudest cheering I’ve ever heard,” Kimmel told Variety at the time. “People were screaming and cheering and actually crying for so long that we had to cut some of it out to make the show time.”
While this week’s lineup includes some big names, Kimmel has hosted a wide range of stars during past Brooklyn runs, including Cardi B, Eminem, Jason Bateman, Wu-Tang Clan, Jon Stewart, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael J. Fox, Alicia Keys, John Krasinski, David Letterman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tracy Morgan, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Jay-Z and Howard Stern.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” airs at 11:35 p.m. on abc.com and at youtube/JimmyKimmelLive.
