Jimmy Kimmel has recently revealed he wanted to retire from late-night show prior to ongoing writers’ strike on Spotify’s Strike Force Five podcast
On Wednesday, the five late-night hosts launched a new podcast featuring Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver and Seth Meyers, to benefit out-of-work staff affected by the Writers Guild of America strike.
Speaking on the first episode of the podcast, Kimmel said, “I was very intent on retiring right around the time where the strike started.”
“And now, I realise, oh yeah, it’s kind of nice to work. You know when you are working, you think about not working,” remarked the TV host.
Meyers questioned his fellow late-night TV host, “Kimmel, c’mon, you are the Tom Brady of late night. You have feigned retirement. Are we to take you at your word?”
Kimmel responded, “I was serious, I was very, very serious.”
Kimmel added that he likes getting the summer off from his show each year, but “I like it better when I am getting paid to get the summer off”.
It is believed that Kimmel’s retirement decision would have backfired at him as he concurred to a three-year extension of his Emmy-nominated ABC show last year.
At the time, the host quipped in a press statement, “After two decades at ABC, I am now looking forward to three years of what they call ‘quiet quitting’.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the writers went on strike in early May after six weeks of negotiations with Netflix, Amazon, Warner Bros, Disney and Discovery.
It is also reported that Fallon and Meyers were personally paying their writers during the strike period to support of the cause.