Jimmy Kimmel has signed a new three-year contract to continue as host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
ABC Entertainment chairman Karey Burke made the announcement during Disney’s upfront press conference Tuesday morning. The new contract will take the show through its 20th season. “Jimmy Kimmel Live” first premiered in 2003.
Kimmel is the third-longest serving current host in network late-night TV, trailing only Conan O’Brien and Bill Maher. Kimmel has represented stability for ABC over the past decade as NBC and CBS have completely overhauled their respective late-night lineups.
Kimmel recently talked about what life would be for him should he decide to end the show.
“The thing that scares me is I don’t know how I’ll feel when I stop doing it,” Kimmel said O’Brien’s podcast “Earwolf.”
“I could see myself going, ‘OK, that’s it, I’m done,’ and then going home and saying, ‘What did I do?’ I think that’s happened, I’ve seen people do that. That scares me. There’s that ‘what if.’ What if I stop doing and then I just don’t know what to do with myself?”
Kimmel recently launched his own production company, Kimmelot, which will exist under Brent Montgomery’s Wheelhouse Entertainment umbrella. Former CAA agent Scott Lonker will run the company, which already has an unscripted deal with ITV America. The first series that will be produced under this deal is the revival for “Crank Yankers.”