Over the last several months, Jimmy Kimmel Live! has been all over the news after ABC announced that the decision had been made to suspend the show's host. Even after Kimmel made his much-discussed return to television, there have still been headlines about the possibility that Jimmy Kimmel could be taken off the air again.
Given the upheaval that has been going on around him of late, it is fascinating to look back to the beginning of Kimmel's talk show. One example of that is that it was amazing to learn that Kimmel recently stated that he believes ABC never should have hired him, to begin with. While those remarks from Kimmel garnered attention, however, most people have no idea that he also recently stated that he used to "pray that they canceled the show."
Jimmy Kimmel revealed that he used to "pray that they canceled" his talk show
Earlier in Jimmy Kimmel's career, he co-hosted two shows that were successful at the time, Win Ben Stein's Money and The Man Show. Then, Kimmel got the opportunity to host his own talk show starting in 2003. While those two previous gigs likely would have made Kimmel more comfortable on camera in general, they evidently didn't make him feel ready to be a talk show host.
In October 2025, Kimmel made an appearance on the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast and had an extensive conversation with one of its hosts, Ted Danson. During that discussion, Kimmel reflected on the early days of his talk show hosting career and revealed how unsure of himself he felt at that time.
As Kimmel explained during the podcast appearance, he felt like he had no idea what he was doing as a talk show host. At the same time, Kimmel wasn't willing to quit his show and let many people down. As a result, Kimmel would pray that ABC would cancel his talk show.
"I didn't know what I was doing, and I would pray that they canceled the show sometimes. I didn't want to quit because I didn't want to disappoint all the many people who worked for me, but I couldn't. I was just, I couldn't do it anymore."
As the podcast conversation continued, Kimmel went on to describe one of the factors that made him feel so unsure of himself during the early days of his podcast. As he explained, the struggle to get celebrities to agree to be guests on his show early on caused behind-the-scenes chaos that fed into Kimmel's uncertainty.
"Now keep in mind this show was on, we'd go on the air live at midnight at 12:05 [a.m.], and there were times where it was 5:30 in the afternoon and we didn't have guests for that night's show. And I would just have to pick up the phone and call my friends. And that's not how you go into a show."
Fortunately for Kimmel, he told Danson that once his talk show "stabilized," he began to feel more confident as a host. As of October 2025, Jimmy Kimmel Live! has been airing for more than 20 years since it premiered in 2003. With that in mind, it is amazing to think that Kimmel had been so desperate for the show to end early on.