Jimmy Kimmel is one of the leaders of the anti-President Trump Hollywood cult that bashes him nightly and refuses to give him any credit on his many successes.
The ABC star suddenly became a “political guru” shockingly around the same time then-candidate Trump was tearing up the Republican field back in 2016. That means that Kimmel despises our commander in chief so much that makes his show and everything he’s involved with including two consecutive years when he hosted the Academy Awards.
But Jimmy Kimmel was embarrassed when he heard about these numbers.
You might remember one of the most embarrassing moments in Oscar history when Price waterhouse Coopers – the auditing firm in charge of the envelopes for the winners – mixed up the Best Picture winner, which was read as La La Land but it was actually Moonlight.
It was a literal jaw-dropping moment when you saw the look of embarrassment from everyone involved including host Jimmy Kimmel who tried to crack a joke to ease out of the awkward moment but failed miserably.
That particular Academy Award ceremony was riddled with anti-Trump rhetoric and the ratings plummeted.
The following year, ABC asked their late night talent to host again with the promise that there wouldn’t be more Trump vitriol but they couldn’t stop it when it came to the acceptance speeches. How would they manage to do that?
But this year there was no host and instead, the opening was Adam Lambert and Queen. Then it was just presenters.
Now, we’re finding out that the ratings jumped up 9% from last year, which spells terrible news for Kimmel.
Last year, a measly 26.5 million tuned into the event with Kimmel at the helm and this year was still a modest 30 million but a dramatic improvement over last year’s.
What’s odd too is that this wasn’t a particularly good year for movies and the competition was rather weak.
But with all the controversy surrounding the 91st ceremony, it’s surprising they got those numbers at all.
First, the Hollywood Reporter made a bold claim that nobody wanted to host the Oscars for a litany of reasons where big stars like Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld and others refused the Academy.
That’s when they landed on superstar comedian Kevin Hart to host, which was short-lived because homophobic tweets and standup bits surfaced. At first, he wouldn’t apologize, then he did, then it sounded disingenuous, like one you would get from someone who really didn’t want to in the first place.
No matter, with no host and all the controversy, it was looking like it would shake out to be an epic disaster.
This is likely all about him. It makes one wonder why ABC continues to air Jimmy Kimmel LIVE in that slot when they could clearly do a lot better.