Jimmy Kimmel Reflected Upon His ‘Strange’ Emmys Experience While Returning To His Late-Night Studio

This year’s post-Emmys TV hangover included multiple talk-show returns on Monday, including Ellen DeGeneres returning to address those allegations of fostering a toxic workplace. The Emmys host, Jimmy Kimmel, also returned to late night after a months-long hiatus, and of course, he used the monologue to address the news of the day, which was the Emmys. Fortunately for all, Kimmel had forecast a “beautiful disaster” for the event, so not much was a surprise for him. Probably not even that fire.

Kimmel had also fully anticipated lower ratings for the event — which makes sense because people are burned out on Zoom panels and may have expected as much — so he took the report of a 12% tumble (to 6.1 million viewers) from last year in stride: “Well, we set a record let’s just say that.” In much better news, though, the Emmys raised $2.8 million for the No Kid Hungry charity, something that’s sorely needed during these pandemic days.

The host also addressed the eeriness of emceeing an empty event (while joking about how “the only person social-distancing in Zendaya’s house was Zendaya herself”), along with the lack of afterparties:

“The weirdest part of hosting this show was – when it was over – there are usually parties – and everyone is carrying their Emmys around. Everyone’s happy, everyone’s celebrating. This year, the show ended – and it was like ‘well, I guess I’ll go into my car – and drive home.’ Doing an awards show – where all the winners are at home – is a strange experience. It was probably the first time in history that someone won an Emmy – and then, ten minutes later put a load of laundry in the dryer.”

Although Kimmel also included several tweets of people (who didn’t realize that old footage was used for the live-audience effect) who bashed him during the show, the event was actually pretty fun to witness. It was truly a highlight of 2020 and pretty darn successful, given the tough circumstances. Where else can you see John Oliver in a hoodie C’mon.