Contrary to its name,
Kimmel has not aired live editions regularly since 2004; instead, it is recorded at 4:30 p.m.
Pacific Time (7:30 p.m. Eastern) on the day of broadcast outside special episodes. The program switched to taped broadcasts after actor
Thomas Jane guested and
standards and practices was unable to easily
bleep censor a sudden barrage of profanity from Jane to test their limits. On January 13, it was announced that the show would resume production at El Capitan effective immediately.
Talent The show's
house band is
The Cletones. The current members of the band are Cleto Escobedo Jr. on tenor and alto saxophone, Jeff Babko on keyboards, Toshi Yanagi on guitar, Rhonda Smith on bass, and Jonathan Dresel on drums. The band's original bandleader was Escobedo's son, saxophonist Cleto Escobedo III, who was a childhood friend of Kimmel. The band was known as Cleto and the Cletones until Escobedo III's death; it was renamed The Cletones on November 17, 2025. Smith replaced
Jimmy Earl after his 2022 retirement. Like other talk shows with live bands, The Cletones play the show's opening and closing themes and play into and out of commercial breaks. (They usually play through the entire break for the studio audience.) The show's opening theme was written by Les Pierce,
Jonathan Kimmel, and Cleto Escobedo III and sung by
Robert Goulet. The show originally had guest co-hosts each week who would participate in skits and question each night's guests. Parking lot security guard
Guillermo Rodriguez became the
sidekick of the show after he was caught sleeping in announcer
Dicky Barrett's car. The show also featured guest announcers, until comedian
Andy Milonakis took over as the show's
announcer from late 2003 to 2004. He would also appear in comedy bits for the show. Then in 2004,
Mighty Mighty Bosstones &
The Defiant singer
Dicky Barrett took over as the show's
announcer when the Bosstones went on a hiatus. Barrett left the show in 2022 and was replaced by comedian
Lou Wilson. Since its inception, stand-up comedian Don Barris has performed as the
warmup comic for the in-studio audience, although he rarely appears on camera; before joining JKL, Barris was the warmup comic for
The Man Show.
Francis "Uncle Frank" Potenza, Kimmel's real-life uncle, served as a security guard for the show, and appeared regularly in bits on-camera with Kimmel and other employees of the show. He was a New York City police officer and a personal security guard for
Frank Sinatra. Potenza did not appear regularly from December 2009 through March 2010, due to illness. (In the interim, he did appear on the seventh anniversary show on January 26, 2010.) However, he later returned as a semi-regular. Potenza died on August 23, 2011, at the age of 77.
Veatrice Rice was another parking lot security guard who had several of her own segments on the show until her death from cancer on January 21, 2009.
Kimmel and Matt Damon Frequently at the end of the show, Kimmel thanks the guests as usual, but then adds, "Our apologies to
Matt Damon, we ran out of time." Damon himself told
Parade magazine in 2011 that Kimmel said he first did it at a low moment at the end of a show which had substandard guests. The show's producer liked the joke, and Kimmel continued to do it on subsequent shows for their amusement. During a 2013 appearance on the radio talk show
Fresh Air, Kimmel further stated that he only chose Damon's name because it was the first A-list actor that popped into his head that "we absolutely would not bump if he was on the show". On September 12, 2006, Damon appeared on the show. A montage of clips demonstrating the numerous times Kimmel performed the bit was shown and, after a very lengthy introduction by Kimmel, Damon appeared on stage. After a few seconds, Kimmel apologized and stated that the show was out of time. He asked Damon if he could return the next night, to which Damon replied, "Go fuck yourself." An infuriated Damon continued to curse at Kimmel throughout the rolling of the credits, ultimately slapping the desk and walking off the set. In the December 17, 2006, issue of
USA Weekend, Kimmel acknowledged that the Damon incident was a joke. In the show which aired on June 5, 2007, Kimmel sent his sidekick Guillermo to the ''
Ocean's Thirteen premiere to interview Damon, though when he started the interview, he said that they were out of time, at which point Damon assumed that Kimmel sent him. In the August 2, 2007, episode, Kimmel then announced that Guillermo was taking on the role of Jason Bourne, who was played by Damon, for The Bourne Ultimatum''. A clip was shown in which Guillermo was playing Bourne, until Damon showed up and thought that Kimmel was now trying to bump him from his movie. Damon tried to chase Guillermo but Guillermo slapped him and jumped through a wall. In Kimmel's 2010 post-Oscar show, he featured a clip called "The Handsome Men's Club", which ended with Damon telling Kimmel, "We're all out of time," then bursting into evil laughter after Kimmel was ejected from the club for not being handsome enough. However, it turned out to be a dream, as he wakes up next to
Ben Affleck. Damon was part of the all-star cast assembled by Kimmel for his 2012 Oscars parody, which was a mock trailer for a non-existent blockbuster called
Movie: The Movie. Damon appears briefly in a full grape suit, only to be informed his scene had been cut from the "film" after which he is shown storming out of the studio (as part of the trailer), cursing at Kimmel. In the mock trailer for the sequel, 'Movie: The Movie 2', Damon appears again as an alien who is munching on a sandwich only to think he is munching something else. He walks out cursing Kimmel again. However, it later shown to just be a toy. In August 2013, Guillermo crashed a Matt Damon interview, about his upcoming movie
Elysium, by promoting his own movie called "Estupido", about a stupid man, which poster had an arrow pointing towards Matt Damon. At the end of the interview, Matt removed the poster, revealing on the other side the name of another Guillermo movie called "Ass Face", also with an arrow pointing towards Matt. Matt accuses Guillermo of acting on Kimmel's orders and, facing the camera, starts to say "you...", at which time it cuts to Guillermo's promo which ends with Matt's face turning into an ass. In February 2014, Damon was invited with the cast of
The Monuments Men. Damon sat in another seat. A fake fire was activated at the end of the show when Kimmel asked Damon a question. During Kimmel's 2016 post-Oscar special,
Ben Affleck wore a very large coat for his appearance, and Damon emerged from the coat for the interview. However, he was removed from the studio by an enraged Kimmel, who then moved on to interview Affleck. Later, Damon appeared in a sketch about the movie that Affleck stars in,
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, reprising his role as astronaut
Mark Watney. When Kimmel hosted the
89th Academy Awards on February 26, 2017, he renewed his feud with Damon, first in a skit harshly criticizing Damon's film
We Bought a Zoo, having the announcer introduce him as only the unnamed "guest" of
Ben Affleck, and personally
conducting the orchestra to play him off while Damon was talking (before announcing the nominees and award winner). On an appearance on
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Damon praised Fallon for his speedy invitation process, which Kimmel poked fun of. In June 2020, during the
COVID-19 pandemic when Kimmel was hosting the show from his house, Damon emerged from one of Kimmel's bedrooms, revealing to have been there during the whole pandemic and demanded to be on the show, when Kimmel wanted to take a break. Then it was revealed Kimmel's wife had been cheating on him with Damon again. This resulted in Kimmel telling Damon he is not on the show. On April 1, 2022, with Jimmy Fallon hosting in place of Kimmel for April Fools' Day, Fallon announced Matt Damon as a guest on the show. Instead, Justin Timberlake emerged wearing Boston Red Sox apparel and carrying a Dunkin' Donuts coffee cup, loosely in character as Matt Damon. The interview ended with Timberlake spray painting "I <3 Matt Damon" on the front of Kimmel's desk.
"I'm fucking Matt Damon" video In a segment that aired on January 31, 2008, Kimmel's then long-time girlfriend
Sarah Silverman appeared on the show and announced, via a music video, that she had been "
fucking Matt Damon." Damon took an additional jab at Kimmel's long running gag by telling Kimmel at the end of the video, "Jimmy, we're out of time. Sorry." On February 24, on Kimmel's third post-Oscar show, he debuted his rebuttal video, announcing that he was doing the same to
Ben Affleck. Kimmel introduced his star-studded musical by addressing Damon and vowing, "You take something I love from me, I'm gonna take something you love from you." On its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list,
Entertainment Weekly put Damon as an action star at No. 60 and the Silverman video on No. 62, writing, "A talk-show host's famous comedian girlfriend confesses in a catchy song that she's shtupping No. 60? Yeah, that'll go viral." In 2008, the segment won a
Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.
Jimmy Kimmel Sucks! For the 10th anniversary episode on January 24, 2013, Damon took over hosting duties; for the occasion, the show was renamed
Jimmy Kimmel Sucks! The episode began with a sequence of clips showing Kimmel "bumping" Damon, and continued with Damon taking command of the show, while Kimmel was tied to a chair and gagged for the remainder of the episode. Damon then replaced Guillermo with
Andy Garcia and bandleader Cleto with
Sheryl Crow, before bringing in
Robin Williams to do the monologue. The show had numerous guests, including
Nicole Kidman,
Gary Oldman,
Amy Adams,
Reese Witherspoon,
Demi Moore, and
Sarah Silverman, along with an on-screen cameo by
Ben Affleck during Damon's monologue. There were also numerous taped pieces congratulating Damon on hosting, including by
Jennifer Lopez,
Sally Field,
John Krasinski,
Robert De Niro,
Don Cheadle,
Oprah Winfrey, and Kimmel's parents. Damon also "revealed" that Kimmel keeps "bumping" Damon out of jealousy: a clip shows Kimmel's unsuccessful attempts to audition for all movie roles that Damon played. At the episode's end, Damon turns the "We ran out of time" joke on Kimmel after asking Kimmel if he had anything to say. The episode was the highest-rated late night show that evening, and ABC elected to rebroadcast it in primetime the following week.
Jay Leno parody During the
2010 Tonight Show conflict, Kimmel donned a gray wig and fake chin, performing his entire January 12, 2010, show in character as
Jay Leno. With his bandleader, Cleto Escobedo, parodying Leno's bandleader
Kevin Eubanks, Kimmel started out his monologue with "It's good to be here on ABC. Hey, Cleto, you know what ABC stands for? Always Bump Conan." He also referenced the "People of Earth" letter written by
Conan O'Brien, noting how O'Brien declined to participate in the "destruction" of
The Tonight Show, commenting as Leno that "Fortunately, though, I will! I'll burn it down if I have to!" Leno called Kimmel the next morning to discuss the bit, and at the end of the call, Leno suggested he come over and appear on his show. When his booking department called to confirm his appearance on a "10 at 10" segment, Kimmel agreed immediately. When he received the questions for his January 14 appearance—such as "What's your favorite snack junk food?"—he realized Leno intended to neutralize the scathing parody and paint the two as friends. Kimmel, however, was upfront with wanting to discuss the fiasco at hand, and upon his appearance, attempted to steer the questions that way: when asked about his favorite prank, he responded, "I think the best prank I ever pulled was, I told a guy once, 'Five years from now I'm going to give you my show.' And then when the five years came, I gave it to him and I took it back, almost instantly." Another example came from when Leno asked, "Ever order anything off the TV?" Kimmel replied, "Like when NBC ordered your show off the TV?" Following similar remarks to more questions, Kimmel closed the segment with this comment: "Listen, Jay. Conan and I have children. All you have to take care of is cars! We have lives to lead here! You've got eight hundred million dollars! For God's sakes, leave our shows alone!" Leno never fought back and accepted the bit as comedy (he described it as Kimmel attempting to score some publicity), but Leno's producer, Debbie Vickers, was furious. Kimmel discussed the appearance during an interview with
Marc Maron for the latter's
podcast in 2012. Kimmel stated that he felt O'Brien was not given a proper chance, but that he was also motivated by his own history with Leno. According to Kimmel, Leno had some years prior been in serious discussions with ABC about the possibility of jumping ship from NBC. During this period, Leno initiated a friendship with Kimmel, wanting to ensure that they would be on good terms if the move was made. (Under that scenario, Leno would have taken Kimmel's time slot and become his lead-in.) However, after Leno made the arrangement to remain at NBC, "those conversations were gone," according to Kimmel. Realizing that Leno's relationship with him had been artificial, Kimmel felt "worked over", reasoning that Leno was using the ABC discussions as a bargaining tactic to try to get his old job back.
Sets The stage where the show is taped has gone through many changes, from the addition of a platform in front of the stage for Kimmel to do his monologue, to various stage backgrounds. In January 2005, the show's original set, at the TV studio in the
Hollywood Masonic Temple (now known as the El Capitan Entertainment Centre), which had video screens in the background and the band performing on the left side of the stage, was replaced with the current set, which has a city in the background. The band now performs on the right side of the stage. In the special February 25, 2007, episode of
Jimmy Kimmel Live! (the second "After the Academy Awards" show), the second set was slightly tweaked when an illustrated picture of a city, which was seen in the background from January 2005 to February 2007, was replaced with a 3D
collage of Los Angeles and Hollywood (including the adjacent
Dolby Theatre (formerly Kodak Theatre) across from the studio where his show is broadcast from). The 3D image, which was first used during
Lionel Richie's outdoor stage performances in the September 16, 2006, episode, was created by artists Colin Cheer and Brian Walters. A brand-new set was unveiled January 8, 2013, coinciding with the show's move to the earlier 11:35 p.m. timeslot. The new set is similar to the previous one, though the desk and chairs are no longer a stationary set element, and are only brought out for the guest interviews. Later, the traditional city
duratrans was replaced with a large floor-to-ceiling curved video display known as the "Wall of America", which most of the time displays the traditional background, but is now also able to be used for video pieces and bits, along with interviews (including ones where Kimmel is not at his desk; an instance of this was an interview through Cisco's Jabber Guest with actress
Viola Davis after the first-season finale of
How to Get Away with Murder in February 2015 where she was unable to fly to Los Angeles from the East Coast due to weather issues) which are branded under
Cisco Systems's
telepresence technology. The desk/chairs component of the set is also not permanently staged unlike most talk shows, being quickly built on-stage only after Kimmel has finished his monologue, skits and bits at center stage, a build-out seen every episode in a 'split' commercial break where Kimmel is seen interacting with the audience during it.
Music The
Jimmy Kimmel Live Concert Series segment comprises a musical performance at the end of the show, which is performed either in a more intimate space on the second floor of the Masonic Temple, or a nearby outdoor stage, along with rare on-location performances, and during the pandemic, remotely performed.
Coors Light sponsored most of the show's musical performances from 2004 to 2006. In June 2005, the show partnered with
Pontiac for its concerts, which were held on the "Pontiac Garage" outdoor stage in Hollywood. The "Pontiac Garage" campaign was created
Leo Burnett Worldwide for the show including The
Super Bowl XL Roadtrip in a
Pontiac G6, and the live advertisements to coincide with the launch of the
Pontiac G8 (a rebadged
Holden VE Commodore). Pontiac was sponsored for 4 years until the sponsor's parent company,
General Motors,
filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and announced the termination of the brand. Beginning in October 2009,
Anheuser-Busch's
Bud Light (initially Bud Light Golden Wheat in 2009–10) replaced Pontiac as the segment's sponsor. In January 2013,
Sony took over sponsorship. In 2014, AT&T took over sponsorship, then in 2015
Samsung replaced AT&T as the segment's sponsor, in 2016
Cîroc replaced Samsung as the segment's sponsor and in 2017
Mercedes-Benz became the segment's sponsor. ==Special broadcasts==