Jimmy Kimmel’s Kimmelot and Brent Montgomery’s Wheelhouse Entertainment have parted ways as investment partners, according to media reports.
Kimmel pulled his investment in Wheelhouse, which was founded by the “Pawn Stars” producer, and Wheelhouse similarly divested its stake in Kimmel’s production banner. Despite the end of the investment partnership, the companies will continue working together on several series as well as “share resources and partner on a variety of individual projects.”
The news comes a couple months after Wheelhouse Entertainment secured an investment from Jeff Bewkes and Kevin Tsujihara’s investment firm, Alignment Growth. The commitment marked the first outside investment that Wheelhouse has taken since its launch in 2018.
“When Wheelhouse took the equity investment from Alignment Growth, we made the decision to consolidate equity ownership,” representatives for Wheelhouse and Kimmalot said in a joint statement to media. “Jimmy transitioned from an equity partner to a commercial partner. While we no longer have ownership stakes in each other’s companies, Kimmelot and Wheelhouse continue to share resources and partner on a variety of individual projects.”
Montgomery, who previously served as ITV America CEO, left his post at the British broadcaster, which bought his production company, Leftfield Entertainment, in 2014 for $360M, in 2018 to found Wheelhouse Entertainment. Kimmel came onboard in 2018 as he launched his own production banner, Kimmelot, in partnership with Wheelhouse and took an equity stake in Wheelhouse at the time.
Since its 2018 launch, Kimmelot has produced several series, including “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Comedy Central’s “Crank Yankers,” “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” and ABC’s “Live In Front Of A Studio Audience,” “Generation Gap” and “The Prank Panel.” It also produces Hulu’s “High Hopes” and ESPN docuseries “Once Upon A Time In Queens: The Wild Ride of the ’86 Mets.”
Representatives for Kimmelot and Wheelhouse did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.