Jimmy Kimmel Hints at Retiring From Late-Night Show

After 21 years on the air, Jimmy Kimmel could soon be stepping away from the late-night TV scene. Speaking with the Los Angeles Times amid what is poised to be a busy year for the host, who recently marked the 21st anniversary of Jimmy Kimmel Live! and is set to host the Oscars on March 10, Kimmel opened up about his future once his current contract ends, teasing the possible end of his hit ABC late-night show.

“I think this is my final contract,” Kimmel said. “I hate to even say it, because everyone’s laughing at me now – each time I think that, and then it turns out to be not the case. I still have a little more than two years left on my contract, and that seems pretty good. That seems like enough.”

Kimmel made his way to the late-night landscape back in January 2003 when Jimmy Kimmel Live! debuted. The nightly hour-long show currently holds the title as the longest-running late-night talk show on ABC, with Kimmel currently placed in late-night TV history as having served as a late-night talk show host for longer than any other host currently on the air. However, Kimmel admitted that “it’s hard to yearn for it when you’re doing it.”

“Wednesday night, I was very tired and I had all these scripts to go through – I had to revise and rewrite all these pitch ideas for the Oscars – and I was literally nodding off onto my computer,” he shared. “In those moments, I think, ‘I cannot wait until my contract is over.’ But then, I take the summer off or I go on strike, and you start going, ‘Yeah, I miss the fun stuff.’”

While Kimmel said he believes “this is my final contract,” he said he isn’t entirely sure what he will do when he retires from late-night hosting. Kimmel joked, “It’s funny, whenever I think of what I’m going to do when I stop working, it all involves more work.”

“I don’t know exactly what I will do. It might not be anything that anyone other than me is aware of,” he told the outlet. “I have a lot of hobbies – I love to cook, I love to draw, I imagine myself learning to do sculptures. I know that when I die, if I’m fortunate enough to die on my own terms in my own bed, I’m going to think, ‘Oh, I was never able to get to this, and I was never able to get to that.’ I just know it about myself.”

Kimmel did say he’s pretty certain about one thing: “I won’t be doing stand-up after I stop doing the [talk] show – I am uncomfortable with it. I don’t like my birthday. I love being a team player.”