Jimmy Kimmel reveals which comedian is his favorite Jimmy Kimmel Live! guest host

Jimmy Kimmel has been hosting late night for a long time. The first episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! aired in 2003, and the comedian has been at it ever since. There's been some changes to his work schedule in recent years, however.

Kimmel has decided to take the summer off from his talk show, and rely on a revolving door of guest hosts to fill in for him. These hosts will typically host for a week at a time, and are allowed to put their own unique spin on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Jimmy Kimmel named Lil Rel Howery as his top pick

The people Kimmel has been able to get over the years is astounding. There have been screen icons like Jeff Goldblum, comedy icons like Martin Short, and Saturday Night Live icons like David Spade, to name a few.

Kimmel talked about these different guest hosts during a 2020 appearance on The Howard Stern Show. The radio fixture asked Kimmel which host stood out to him from the rest, and Kimmel gave him a surprising answer. It wasn't Goldlum, or Short, or Spade, but comedian Lil Rel Howery.

Howery, a stand up comic who is best known for his supporting role in the 2017 film Get Out, served as a guest host during the summer of 2020. The comedian took an earnest approach, and decided to address the difficulties that the country was experiencing at the height of the pandemic.

Kimmel respected Howery's emotional monologue

This was something that thoroughly impressed Kimmel:

"I thought the best monologue was given by a guy named Lil Rel Howery. He's a comic actor but he gave a very serious... emotional monologue."

Stern gave Kimmel a hypothetical, and asked if he gets nervous when someone like Howery comes along and delivers a stellar monologue. The host brushed off the concern, however, and clarified that he would be more than happy to step aside if NBC decided to give his time slot over to a comedian of Howery's skill level. "I have no problem with that whatsoever," he said while laughing.