ABC ushered in its new late-night franchise, “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” on Sunday night, and already the network is making a tweak: It’s evidently doing away with the show’s liquor license, after an audience member vomited on her chair, apparently near a high-ranking Disney (parent of ABC) executive.
“They thought it was out of control,” Daniel Kellison, the show’s executive producer, said Monday of the network’s assessment of the atmosphere and decision to eliminate a bar for audience members. “People had bracelets [to get drinks], but they perceived it as chaotic.”
An ABC official did not return a call for comment.
Depending on whom you believe, ABC either wants to perpetuate a nightly bacchanal in exchange for ratings or is leery of upsetting affiliates across the country. Kimmel, at least on his first show, seemed eager to suggest that what he was doing was too risque for Disney’s ears.
To that end, there were other first-show highlights. Kimmel’s co-host for the week, rapper Snoop Dogg, flipped off the camera numerous times, in a bit designed to draw attention to the headaches the show will give ABC censors. Actor George Clooney passed around a bottle of vodka.
Monday night’s show featured the Rock, rapper 50 Cent and Super Bowl sportscaster Al Michaels–and a fake blizzard to copy NBC’s “Blizzard Monday” lineup of snow-filled shows.
Somewhere in all of this is a talk show–the one ABC hopes will give it leverage in late night among coveted 18- to 34-year-old viewers.
Kellison said he is pleased with the loose, live feel of the show. As of Monday, no one was booked yet for the Tuesday or Wednesday shows.
When it was suggested that the show is merely being spun as a seat-of-the-pants endeavor, and that things are more planned out than he was letting on, Kellison said: “When we say we don’t have any guests, we don’t have any guests.”
By Tuesday afternoon, the lineup for that night’s show was coming together, including actress Tammy Faye. Wednesday’s show is to include a performance by New Found Glory, and Thursday’s scheduled lineup included LeAnn Rimes, Seth Green and a pet psychic, an ABC spokeswoman said Tuesday.
