Jimmy Kimmel says he's not defending democracy. But he's standing up for
fellow Emmy nominee Colbert
[September 11, 2025]
By ANDREW DALTON
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jimmy Kimmel is no defender of democracy.
At least he turned down the title when a reporter suggested he might be.
“Those are heavy thoughts and I have a tendency to reject them," he said
backstage this weekend at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. "I don’t really
feel like I’m defending democracy.”
He said he's doing something much smaller when he lays into President
Donald Trump.
“I’m giving this guy a little poke, and he deserves it, and I enjoy it,
and I hope that people enjoy it too,” Kimmel said.
As the 57-year-old TV personality spoke he was holding his fourth
Primetime Emmy Award, this one for best game show host for his helming
of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” He's up for another Sunday for
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Kimmel is, undoubtedly though, a defender of Stephen Colbert — and voted
for him too.
When his friend and fellow late-night host Colbert had his “Late Show”
canceled in July, three days after criticizing a settlement between
Trump and CBS parent company Paramount Global as it was seeking
administration approval for a merger, Kimmel cursed CBS and shared his
love for Colbert. Executives insisted the decision was financial.
Later he erected a billboard in Los Angeles declaring “I'm voting for
Stephen," throwing his endorsement to his opponent in their Emmy race in
the talk series category.
Kimmel was on a long vacation from ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" when
Colbert's cancellation happened, but weighed in when he returned last
week.
“CBS, all of a sudden out of the blue, claimed ‘The Late Show’ was
losing $40 million a year and then miraculously got FCC approval to sell
their company, which is what they wanted," he said.
He also responded to Trump, who posted on Truth Social, “I hear Jimmy
Kimmel is next,” Trump wrote. “Has even less talent than Colbert.”
“Oh, you delicate, chubby little teacup, did we hurt your feelings?"
Kimmel said on his show. “You want us to be canceled because we make
jokes about you. I thought you were against cancel culture.”
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Jimmy Kimmel poses in the press room with the award for host for a
game show for "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" during night two of
the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025, at the
Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
 Somehow none of Kimmel's Emmys are
for the late-night show he's hosted for 22 years — though most of
his 27 nominations are.
One is for hosting the Oscars. Two are for the special all-star
recreations of old sitcoms he produced between 2019 and 2021, “Live
in Front of a Studio Audience.” Asked if he's given any thought to
reviving those, he said not without his partner in the project,
Norman Lear, who died at age 101 in 2023.
“It would be too emotional to do it without Norman," Kimmel said. “I
don’t know if my heart could take it.”
He’s also a three-time Emmys host — a job that this year will go to
Nate Bargatze when the show airs on CBS.
And he won a daytime Emmy as best game show host for his work on
Comedy Central's “Win Ben Stein's Money” way back in 1999, before
the award got promoted to primetime.
“When we won that Emmy, we went on the air the same week ‘South
Park’ went on the air, and Comedy Central was not a channel that
many people watched," Kimmel said at the Creative Arts Emmys. "And
we were up against these titans, the same shows we’re up against
now, ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and ‘Jeopardy.’ We didn’t know anyone was
watching the show. I think it was the first Emmy Comedy Central ever
won."
Asked how long he plans to keep his current show going, he kept it
vague.
“I’m not prepared to answer that question, but it is something I
think about a lot," he said with a smile. “Each day is a new
adventure, and I kind of take them as they come, is that a good way
of dodging the question?”
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