If you’ve tuned into Jimmy Kimmel Live! at all in the last two months you may have noticed something strange: no Jimmy Kimmel.
Around the turn of the summer – on June 20 to be exact – a string of guest hosts started appearing on the show: Sean Hayes, Chelsea Handler, Anthony Anderson, Mark Rober, Dana Carvey, Kerry Washington, RuPaul, Rob McElhenney, David Alan Grier, Desus Nice, Al Franken, Nicole Byer, Lamorne Morris, Simu Liu, and most recently Nikki Glaser.
It’s not uncommon for a talk show to bring in a guest host when the main host is on vacation or out sick, but it’s been over two months, 15 guest hosts, and still no Jimmy Kimmel.
Is he leaving the show? Is he healthy? Will he ever come back? Here’s what we know.
Why are there so many guest hosts on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and will Jimmy Kimmel come back?
On June 18, after testing positive for COVID-19 twice in two months, Kimmel remotely informed his viewers that they can expect so see some guests host on the show in the coming future. He explained that he’s been filming Jimmy Kimmel Live! for almost 18 years and done 3,130 shows. In other words, he needed a vacation.
Kimmel is expected to return in the fall of 2022 after enjoying his third consecutive summer off. He assured viewers that he is healthy, his family is healthy, and he “just needs a couple of months off.”
In his absence, we’ve enjoyed hilarious interviews from Dwayne Johnson, Jameela Jamil, and the cast of Thor: Love and Thunder to name just a few.
When Kimmel returns in the fall the show will make a trip out to Brooklyn, New York, where it will film in front of a live studio audience at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House, according to Variety. This will mark the show’s seventh trip to the east coast city, but the first in three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET / 10:35 p.m. CT on ABC and can be streamed with Hulu.