Sept. 23, 2025

Jimmy Kimmel returns tonight - what will he say? How did the comeback happen?

Show Notes
Transcript

Jimmy Kimmel's return to late-night television tonigh. A look at the intense negotiations with top Disney executives, leading to a last-minute agreement. Hollywood's reactions were mixed, with some calling it a 'pseudo suspension.' The podcast quotes other late-night hosts like John Stewart and Stephen Colbert, who commented on the situation. The episode also references historical late-night TV controversies and previews Jimmy Kimmel's anticipated monologue.

Feed update:
Today - there was the normal episode, then a binus episode with Mark Malkoff host of Inside Late Night and The Carson Podcast, and author of Love Johnny Carson.

Wednesdau - normal epsiode at 3am, a fantastic bonus with Jason Zinoman from the New York Times at noon, and a Kimmel bonus at 3pm or so.

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WEBVTT

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Callaroga Shark Media.

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All right, this is the Tuesday, September twenty third Jimmy

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Kimmel bonus episode. Jimmy's Show is back tonight. Just to

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clean up the feed. There was a normal episode this morning.

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Around noon, I dropped an hour long episode with Mark

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Malkoff from the Late Night Podcast. We talked about this

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stuff a little bit, mostly about Johnny Carson, and this

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is the bonus episode. If you are a new listener

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who has recently discovered the show. Normally I do one

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of these a day, seven days a week. It is

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called Daily Comedy News, and I am Johnny Mack. Deadline

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reports that tonight's return of Jimmy Kimmel to Late Night

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was the result of days of meetings and negotiations with

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top Disney executives. They only figured this out on Monday

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around three Eastern was when the news came out. The

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conversations were between Disney CEO Bob Iger, who many are

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saying has really tarnished his legacy with this Kimmel move.

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Disney entertained Mint chief Dana Walden, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jimmy's team.

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An insider toil Deadline, there was always a desire to

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do the best dating for the company. Yeah, you think.

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There was apparently a last minute flurry of paperwork, techts

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and calls with team Jimmy Kimmel. What will Jimmy say tonight?

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A source says Jimmy will say what Jimmy wants to say.

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It is believed there are no restrictions on that. Personally,

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I'm expecting Jimmy to clarify what he meant by the

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controversial remarks, and I think he will give a very

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thoughtful response. I don't think you're going to get what

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you might have gotten out of say John Stewart here.

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I think he'll get a very thoughtful monologue tonight. We

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will see, and of course I will cover that on

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Wednesday in a bonus episode. Deadline reports people in Hollywood

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were not happy about this. One source called it a

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pseudo suspension. They also quote a Hollywood power player saying

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it became such a mess the only solution for all

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sides was to get this over with sooner rather than later.

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As I record this on Tuesday, I have not seen

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any sort of reaction yet from the President of the

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United Slime States. The show's staff found out around the

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same time we did. A staffer tells people, we received

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an email from the executive producer with the good news.

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It was shortened to the point just sharing the good

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news and telling us to come to work on Tuesday.

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That person said they were surprised that it happened all

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of a sudden. They thought this would drag out a

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little bit. The staffer says his coworkers had relief and

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joy across the board. Myself and my colleagues are overjoyed.

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Can't wait to see Tuesday's monologue on The Daily Show.

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Was John Stewart's time behind the desk? By the way,

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you guys gave him a free pass for jumping on

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the desk last week on Thursday. I know we all

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love John Stewart, but if Jay Leno stole the desk

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from Desi Lidick, you guys would have lost your mind.

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Fair's fair, guys. Anyway, John Stewart had this to say, No,

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Kim's coming back.

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That campaign and I you know what I'm joking around.

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I want to say this seriously. That campaign that you

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all launched pretending that you were going to cancel Hulu

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while secretly racing through four seasons of only in the

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building that really worked. Congratulations. It wasn't it interesting to

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try and figure out all the tentacles Disney has in

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your daily life. It's one thing to swear off cruises,

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but the Avengers. No, how is it possible that by

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getting rid of one company, I can't watch Winnie the

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Pooh or Monday Night Football or listen to early Hillary

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Duff So yesterday, I would sing more of it. Obviously,

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Disney is very litigious.

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Stephen Colbert also commented this. He refers to in this

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clip is his Emmy.

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We do like one hundred and sixty of these a

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year or something, And you know, when I have the chance,

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it's always nice to start the show with some good news. Well,

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just a few hours before we tape this broadcast, we

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got word that our long national Late Nightmare is over

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because Disney announced that Jimmy kim Alive will return to Well,

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I just see tomorrow Thursday Night. Come on, what.

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Yes, sir?

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As well, they said me, this is I just couldn't

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have just wonderful news for my dear friend Jimmy and

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his amazing stat they get into the show. That's you know,

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I'm so happy for them. Plus now that Jimmy's not

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being canceled. I get to enjoy this again.

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Yeah, I.

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Discussed once more. I am the only martyr and late

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Nights great unless CBS you want to announce anything.

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In the course of my travels, didn't see anything from

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Jimmy Fallon. I have to check. Jimmy did do a

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Tonight show on Sunday night, so it's possibly Monday was

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a rerun seth Meyers said, we make jokes about politicians

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and people in the news, including Joe Biden. It was

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just harder with Joe Biden because he didn't say much.

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You Trump, on the other hand, talk all the time.

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You never stopped talking. You didn't stop talking when he

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was president. You talk more than all the other presidents combined. Ever,

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people say Johnny Carson didn't make this many jokes about politics,

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but he would have if every time he spoke Ronald

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Reagan did fifteen minutes on how toilets didn't flush well anymore.

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FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said, Jimmy Kimmel is in the

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situation that he is because of his ratings, not because

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of anything that's happened at the federal government level. Sure,

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Jan Chairman Carr was at the twenty twenty five Concordia

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Annual Summit. Listen to this crap. I'm not gonna pull

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my bunch here. Listen to this crap. Carr said, what

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I spoke about last week is that when concerns are

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raised about news distortion, there's an easy way for parties

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to address that and work that out. In the main

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that takes place between local television stations that are licensed

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by the FCC and what we call national programmers like Disney.

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They work that out and there doesn't need to be

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any involvement of the FCC. He adds, then now if

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they don't, there's a way that's not as easy, which

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as someone can file a complaint at the FCC, and

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then the FCC, by law I set up by Congress,

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has to educate that complaint. And when I've been very

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clear in the context of the Kimmel episode is the

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FCC and myself in particular have expressed no view on

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the ultimate merits. Yeah, because Carl said, frankly, when you

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see stuff like this, I mean, we could do this

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the easy way or the hard way. These companies can

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find ways to change conduct, to take action. Frankly, on Kimmel,

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or there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead. Look,

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there's calls for Kimmel to be fired. You could certainly

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see a path forward for suspension over this. This is

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previously Again, the FCC is going to have remedies that

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we can look at. We may ultimately be called to

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be a judge on that right sure. By the way,

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a Google search of the phrase Joe Rogan Kimmel at

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eight fifty four Easter in This Morning turned up nothing.

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One of the comparisons with Jimmy Kiml returning tonight is

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when Jack Parr walked off the Tonight Show on February eleventh,

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nineteen sixty. Parr walked off because the night before they

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had cut one of his jokes. His joke was about WC. Now,

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younger people are like, huh, well, WC is water closet.

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Younger people are like, huh, what's that? A water closet

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is a bathroom. It's nineteen sixty. We're not joking about

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bathrooms on the air. We've come a long way. Everyone.

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Parr sat at his desk on the Tonight Show and said,

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if you read some of the newspapers, you think I

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had committed a terrible obscenity. The whole thing has gotten

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out of hand, but the damage has been done not

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only to the Tonight Show but to me personally. I've

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been wrestling with my conscience all day. I'm leaving the

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Tonight Show. There must be a better way of making

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a living than this. There's a way of entertaining people

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without being constantly involved in some form of controversy, which

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is on me all the time. It's rough on my

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wife and child, and I don't need it. I believe

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it was let down by this network at a time

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when I could have used their help. Parr got up,

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shook hands with announcer Hugh Down, and then Downs had

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to wing the show. Down said, I told Jack when

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he first mentioned to me he intended to do what

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he said. I wish he wouldn't do it. So my

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hope this isn't final. Jack does things hastily at times

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that he doesn't hold on too. I hope he can

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be putting his mind back to the show because he

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built it. Downs then hosted the show with guess orson Bean,

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Shelley Berman and Genevieve Downs hosted the show's next eight episodes,

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and then Arlene Francis hosted a week. Jack Parr returned

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to the Tonight Show on March seventh, strolled on stage,

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took a beat, and said, as I was saying before

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I was interrupted, which is one of the all time

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late night lines, it might you know what probably is

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the number one line. Par then continued, when I walked off,

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I said, there must be a better way of making

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a living. Well, I've looked, and there isn't. That is

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Jimmy Kimmel. A bonus episode All eyes on Jimmy Kimmel

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tonight all right in the morning, normal episode, and then

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I'll have a Kimmel for you, and I'll probably also

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have a bonus episode with Jason Zinnemann from The New

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York Times, who I was planning on recording with on

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Tuesday morning. So keep checking that feed lot going on.

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Thanks for listening.