Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday celebrated the 20th anniversary of his ABC late-night talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, with a primetime special featuring George Clooney, Snoop Dogg and Coldplay — the same lineup that appeared on the show when it premiered January 26, 2003.
“Right out of the gate, we were an immediate hit,” Kimmel joked during his monologue, before reading a list of reviews, calling it a “dead-on-arrival talk show with a charisma-free host” and another that compared it to the “kind of mess created by a sick infant with a leaky diaper.”
Kimmel, 55, also used a bit of 2023 technical wizardry to update his younger self on everything that has happened over the past 20 years.
The guest segments featured Clooney and Snoop Dogg reminiscing about that first show, in which Clooney recalled they “got the audience drunk” and ended up with one woman vomiting on the studio floor.
“By the way, we assumed she was vomiting because she was drunk, it may have just been the show,” quipped Kimmel.
The final guest of the night was Coldplay frontman Chris Martin who, after explaining that they weren’t called to appear until the last minute, gifted Kimmel with a music box that played the band’s hit, “Clocks.” Martin began singing to the music box, joined later by a string section, followed by a choir, and eventually the rest of his band — and Kimmel, who played a bass clarinet.
Many celebrities, including Carol Burnett, Matt Damon, Julia Louis Dreyfus and Michelle Obama, also congratulated Kimmel on his anniversary, appearing in pre-recorded messages during the special.
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