Kimmel: Up Front With Ad Jabs

Jimmy Kimmel has been needling the ad world at upfronts since 2007 and has outlasted several ABC entertainment presidents. Maybe Channing Dungey, who replaced Paul Lee, will decide Kimmel doesn’t bring good luck. But until she does, everyone should enjoy the late-night host’s performance May 17 at New York’s Lincoln Center. And remember these gems from upfronts past:

2015: “Without Shonda [Rhimes], you’d be back at Hogwarts with the other Muggles,” Kimmel said to Paul Lee, then ABC’s entertainment president.

2015: “We have two hashtags at ABC: TGIT and OFITROTW—Oh F---, It’s the Rest of the Week.”

2014: “Don’t get attached to any of these shows—it’s like adopting a kitten with cancer. Too much? You’re gonna hate our new show, Kittens With Cancer.”

2013: “It’s true, every year our audience does get smaller. To which I say every year Apple products get smaller, and nobody has a problem with that.”

2011: “Remember those shows that we were so excited about last fall? We canceled all of them. And yet here you are again. I think you might have a gambling problem.”

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.