Late Night Comes Home, Jimmy Kimmel Returns to Brooklyn
Jimmy Kimmel tapes a week of shows at BAM with McCartney, Springsteen and Howard Stern on the bill
Most nights, Jimmy Kimmel Live comes from the El Capitan Entertainment Centre in Hollywood. Starting Monday, September 28, it is scheduled to come from 30 Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene. For five nights, the ABC late show is set to tape inside the Howard Gilman Opera House at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the host is a Brooklyn native coming back to the borough with a guest list that reads like a benefit gala.
This will be the eighth time the show has made the trip. According to LateNighter, Kimmel and his crew previously set up at BAM in 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, and 2025, and taped 35 episodes there before this year's run. The show airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m., so the city will watch Brooklyn on the late shift.
A Week of Names
Kimmel revealed the lineup on Thursday night, and he had promised an "all-star, big-time lineup of guests," as LateNighter reported. The list backs him up.
Monday is set to open with Pete Davidson, with TV on the Radio as musical guest. Tuesday belongs to Howard Stern, with Bruce Springsteen and Tom Morello performing. Wednesday brings Billy Crystal, Mahershala Ali, and De La Soul. Thursday pairs two fellow late night hosts, John Oliver and Seth Meyers, with the comedian Robby Hoffman. Friday closes with a Paul McCartney interview and the band Goose. Those are the highlights, not the full list.
For one week, the same room belongs to network television.
The Stern booking is the rarest of the bunch. The radio host said earlier this month that he would sit down with Kimmel on Tuesday, and LateNighter notes it will be his first late night talk show visit in nearly seven years. His last one was also with Kimmel, on October 9, 2019, in Los Angeles.
The Crystal slot has its own timing. ABC's published schedule lists him on Wednesday with his new solo show, 860, which begins previews at the Imperial Theatre on West 45th Street the next night. If the schedule holds, one of the city's most familiar faces goes from a Brooklyn stage one night to a Broadway stage the next.
Kimmel also hinted that the published list is not the whole story. He teased "surprise visitors too, as if the regular ones weren't good enough," in LateNighter's account. Last year's Brooklyn run leaned on surprises. Stephen Colbert and the Daily Show correspondent Josh Johnson were scheduled guests, while Seth Meyers and Jon Stewart dropped in unannounced, and Matt Damon turned up on the final night to keep his long running mock feud with the host alive.
Why Brooklyn Keeps Working
Kimmel's tie to the borough is real. The Brooklyn Eagle calls him a Brooklyn native, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal notes that he lived in Brooklyn until his family moved to Las Vegas when he was 9. The show's visits to BAM have become a regular event in Fort Greene. The Opera House is a working arts venue the rest of the year. Its lobby even hosts kiosks from Greenlight Bookstore, the neighborhood shop, according to BAM's visitor information. For one week, the same room belongs to network television.
The trip also comes at a busy moment for the host. Variety reported earlier this month that Kimmel had just returned from a three-month break, during which a rotating group of fill-in hosts took over, including Rosie O'Donnell, Colman Domingo, Jelly Roll, Tiffany Haddish, Anthony Anderson, and Ike Barinholtz. His return night, Variety noted, marked the 4,000th episode of the show.
It was also Emmy season. Ahead of this month's ceremony, the show was nominated for outstanding variety series, and Variety pointed out that a win would be its fourth. Stephen Colbert, whose own show was up against Kimmel's, went out of his way to campaign for him anyway. "I think we can all agree that Jimmy Kimmel deserves an Emmy," Colbert said, as quoted by Variety. That kind of goodwill between hosts is part of what makes the Brooklyn weeks work. Other late night stars keep showing up, on the schedule and off it.
A week in New York changes the texture of a show like this. Several of the guests have New York business of their own to promote. Oliver and Meyers are listed with a residency at the Beacon Theatre to talk about. Crystal comes with a Broadway opening. The city is not a backdrop. It is the booking department.
The city is not a backdrop. It is the booking department.
After the Taping
For five nights running, each audience that files out of the Opera House onto Lafayette Avenue will leave with the same kind of story. Who sat on the couch, and whether anyone walked on unannounced.
For the rest of the city, the broadcast is the event. At 11:35 each night, from Monday through Friday, Brooklyn is set to get the national spotlight, and a Brooklyn native gets to host it from home turf. If you like your late night television with a little more local flavor, our look at the public access show with a cult following is a good place to keep going.
