By Seth Freilich | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (24)
Jimmy Kimmel gave a scathing little monologue at last week’s network upfronts. The text has been floating around the internet ever since, but now we’ve got the actual video if you’re so inclined to kill an amusing 6 minutes.
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Posted by: elsie at May 25, 2009 2:21 PM
To answer your question Seth, because ABC is run by a bunch of people who are only concerned with retaining their core demogaphic. Those being the same people who were Johnny Carson's core demographic (even though Carson was vastly superior). What they fail to realize is that, if you don't attract new viewers and focus only on the current ones, your core demographic will soon be dead. And so will The Tonight Show (mercifully).
Posted by: admin at May 25, 2009 2:34 PM
I'm not in the USA so I don't really know what ABC show and I don't know anything about Jimmy Kimmel but I have to say that was quite funny. And the comments are true to any station. Bullshit. check. Crappy shows. Check. Shows which get cancaelled half way through. Check
Admin. A demographic doesn't disappear that easily. Like minded people recommend a station to each other and many families watch the same stations and shows. If you will, you can almost say it's hereditary. And besides a lifetime of a demographic is longer than you make it out to be which means that a station gets a long time in which to adapt.
Posted by: barf at May 25, 2009 3:29 PM
Most people in broadcasting are high on their own overinflated sense of self-importance. The clique climate leads to tunnel-vision and they start believing their own bullshit.
"Don't you know who (they) are? They work for TV."
Like dinosaurs...
Posted by: Recondite at May 25, 2009 3:41 PM
Dinosaurs?!?!
I love Dinosaurs....
Posted by: Heathen at May 25, 2009 3:48 PM
Hey! I love Dinosaurs too! Remember the baby? He kept calling his dad "Not the mama!"
Damn that show was hilarious!
Posted by: Four Eyes at May 25, 2009 4:41 PM
Because Leno is bland and inoffensive (well, occasionally a tiny bit risque, but only your grandma would think so).
Still, I watch him a little on Mondays just for Headlines, because I'm in the newspaper business and have a sense of humor about it.
Then I go to Letterman, or I go to bed.
FWIW, I've tried watching Jimmy's show and it just seems clear he has the writers who got rejected by the other two. He needs Ben Stein as a sidekick.
Posted by: , (the commenter formerly known as bucdaddy) at May 25, 2009 6:38 PM
He needs Ben Stein as a sidekick.
Or Adam Corrolla who makes him look like an upstanding and hilarious individual in comparison.
Also, when Katherine Heigl verbally bit the hand the fed her, there were recriminations and condemnations strewn end to end on this site. Hell, there still are whenever a new project of hers is announced. Someone let me know why this is different. I do not necessarily disagree with anything Mr.Kimmel is saying, but it just strikes me that when a man has the "guts" to call out what he perceives to be the bad practices on the part of his employer he hailed as a truth teller and hero, but when a woman does it she's a bitch and ungrateful. I consider it bad class on both their parts, but I like to hear other people's opinions.
Posted by: Genny (also Rusty) at May 25, 2009 10:42 PM
Genny, you make a good point about the Heiglmonster.
Kimmel's in the unique position (as he acknowledges) of knowing ABC settled on him when Leno fell through. Heigl instead is the glue of arguably the flagship show, and has spent her career being a prissy primadonna instead of Kimmel's self-deprecating shtick. I think it's mostly a matter of context.
So, is he totally being a bitch here? Sure. Was Heigl right in her criticisms? Sure. They're both right AND bitchy, but I root for Kimmel and don't really for Heigl.
Posted by: Caroline at May 25, 2009 10:53 PM
Plus Heiglmonster reminds me of Kegelmaster way more than anything should, ever. Comment remorse.
Posted by: Caroline at May 25, 2009 10:54 PM
Kimmel's the baby, gotta love 'im!
Posted by: SaBrina at May 25, 2009 11:34 PM
it might be because kimmell is the opposite of funny. sure, he's less bland, but he has no delivery.
Posted by: solomonslines at May 26, 2009 1:13 AM
Also because Heigel was wrong. How was Knocked Up sexist? Because the girl was uptight and the guy was a stoner? I honestly don't see it. And then after slamming her big break she goes on to star in romantic comedies that are sexist, about the career woman who has everything but a man and therefore will NEVER be happy so she devotes every second of her time to finding Mr. Right.
Posted by: carolyn at May 26, 2009 1:42 AM
Genny, I think it's a matter of context. The late shows (theoretically) mockingly comment on anything pop culture related which can include television networks. Heigl wasn't really in a position to do that at the time she made her remarks as she isn't really on a talk show. The flipside would be if Ellen DeGeneres mocked whichever network she is on, I don't think anyone would have a problem if it was suppossed to be funny.
Posted by: erin at May 26, 2009 9:07 AM
Huh Genny/Rusty? I dont' get how you can see (or imply) that there is sexism involved in cheering Jimmy Kimmel versus disliking Katherine Heigl for biting the hand that feeds them? You can't see the difference? Here it is!
Jimmy Kimmel is hired by his network to be a funny man who makes fun of things so that people think he is funny. So when he has a take on something like his own network, of course he is going to make fun of it. It is his job.
Heigl is hired to act. She is given a script to read from. It is her job.
Heigl called out her fellow employees on a national stage as being incompetent or sexist or whatever, not as a means of entertainment, but to...well, I really don't know.
Kimmel called out his bosses on the national stage as being incompetent as a means of entertainment, because that is his job.
To sum: Kimmel is paid to make fun of things and is making fun of his bosses. Heigl is paid to read a script and was making fun of her fellow employees.
Posted by: fifteenkeys at May 26, 2009 9:08 AM
I'm not sure I'm with the "It's Kimmel's job" side of this. Yes, he has a job as the host of a late night show that frequently satirizes entertainment news, but so does Joel McHale and he manages to throw frequent barbs at the E! network and their programming without outright stating "My network will fail because it's run by idiots" which is what Kimmel seems to be doing. I don't disagree with him, but I think he's gone above and beyond something that can be passed off as "just doing his job".
Heigl's made two offhand remarks that have earned her all this scorn. As I said above, I think it betrays a lack of class (or at least forethought) that she said the things she did, but I don't disagree with her either. Knocked Up IS more than a bit sexist in the way it portrays women, and Grey's Anatomy did pull a load of bullshit with her character.
To answer people's questions; yes, I do think that the gender of the speaker has something to do with how we react to their comments. Also, the direction of their attack, since Judd Apatow is a very popular director around these parts and I think a lot of people who read this site will more readily sympathize with screen writers than with actors and actresses. But I have to say, trying to insist that this isn't sexist by insisting that it's tied to their job and that Kimmel's paid to think about stuff and Heigl's paid to look pretty and read a script isn't helping the "non-sexism" case.
Posted by: Genny (also Rusty) at May 26, 2009 11:08 AM
Any actor (male or female) is paid to look pretty and read a script.
Posted by: fifteenkeys at May 26, 2009 11:11 AM
Someone is defending Katherine Heigel....
To those who replied to said person please refer to the sign in front of their cage.
Sign reads: Do not feed the Trolls.
Posted by: Angelmonster at May 26, 2009 11:33 AM
Wait, Genny's a troll? How did I not know this? Genny, how could you? How could you??!!
Posted by: Kolby at May 26, 2009 12:59 PM
Kolby, I'm just as shocked as you are. I suppose I'll adjust, in time, to my new tail, propensity for dwelling under bridges eating billy goats, and upsetting internet commenters who expect everyone visiting a site to share their opinions on celebrities or other public figures.
I guess this means I won't get to meet KolBaby at Pajibacon East for his own saftey. I totally understand though ; )
Posted by: Genny (also Rusty) at May 26, 2009 1:29 PM
Genny Troll, I KNEW you were the furry monster that haunts my fears and dreams!
Posted by: Julie at May 26, 2009 4:35 PM
Poor Genny... from merry funster to furry monster in the blink of an eye.
Posted by: Spender at May 26, 2009 4:59 PM
Are you defending that troll, Spender?
Posted by: Anna von Beaverplatz at May 26, 2009 6:50 PM
*grunt*
Kimmel… stupid. Stupid like Heigl.
*snorfle*
People dumb to like Kimmel.
*belch*
Where goats?
Posted by: Genny (also Trolly) at May 26, 2009 7:21 PM
I read somewhere else (don't remember where) that he does this same type of schtick every year. Can anyone confirm that? Because if it's true, it's not quite as subversive and "FU ABC" as it appears.