Jimmy Kimmel cornered by Howard Stern over ‘fake friendship’ with late-night rival Jimmy Fallon: ‘I wish you would just come clean’
Howard Stern accused his longtime confidant Jimmy Kimmel of carrying on a ‘fake friendship’ with his late-night rival Jimmy Fallon.
Fallon, 52, has been vying for viewers in the same time slot as Kimmel, 58, since stepping into The Tonight Show in 2014 upon Jay Leno’s departure.
Although the competing hosts have publicly maintained an amicable bond, Stern, 72, claimed the display of bonhomie between them was a pretense.
‘I’m gonna be honest. We went away this summer, and you were kind enough to invite me,’ he said while interviewing Kimmel this week on The Howard Stern Show.
‘And I went there with Jimmy Fallon. It’s this whole thing: “Oh, the two Jimmys love each other.” I wish you would just come clean. You don’t enjoy being around Jimmy Fallon. And watching it is too f***ing funny,’ he teased, via the Daily Beast.
Kimmel refused to take the bait and insisted that he genuinely liked spending time with Fallon, whom he described as ‘a lot of fun.’
The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Kimmel, Fallon and Stern for comment.
Howard Stern accused his longtime confidant Jimmy Kimmel of carrying on a ‘fake friendship’ with his late-night rival Jimmy Fallon; Stern and Kimmel are pictured in 2019
Fallon, 52, has been vying for viewers in the same time slot as Kimmel, 58, since stepping into The Tonight Show in 2014 upon Jay Leno’s departure; Fallon and Kimmel pictured in 2022
Stern and Kimmel enjoy a longstanding friendship and frequently vacation together with their respective wives, Beth Ostrosky and Molly McNearney.
‘First of all, I don’t know how I defend myself in this, but I’m going to attempt to,’ said Kimmel. ‘First of all, I cannot imagine anyone not having fun hanging around with Jimmy Fallon, because Jimmy Fallon, as you know, is a lot of fun.’
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He then demanded: ‘But secondly, do you think that I have so much free time in my life and so much open space in my life that I would spend – I’m going to dinner with Jimmy Fallon this week, as a matter of fact while I’m here – that I would waste that time maintaining a pretend friendship for no reason whatsoever?’
‘It’s not pretend,’ argued Stern, putting forth his theory: ‘I think you desperately need to prove that: “Oh, we can all get along.”‘
Kimmel continued to plead ignorance, saying: ‘To who? Who am I proving this to?’ prompting Stern to double down: ‘I don’t know, to the world.’
When Fallon was officially announced as Leno’s replacement on The Tonight Show in 2013, Kimmel joked on Twitter: ‘congratulations to my dear, sweet @jimmyfallon – a formidable rival and an incredible lover.’
‘We’re very friendly. I know people expect us to dislike each other and say bad things about each other but that will never happen,’ Kimmel said at that year’s Time 100 Gala to CBS News. ‘It is nice. We’re like Peaches and Herb. I’m Peaches.’
Four years later, Stern disclosed on his radio show that he discovered Kimmel and Fallon were conducting an email correspondence and arranged a dinner to bring them together in person, along with their wives.
When the Hollywood strikes forced them temporarily off the air, they teamed up with Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers and John Oliver for the podcast Strike Force Five
On April Fool’s Day 2022, the ‘two Jimmys’ hatched a prank in which they surprised their viewers by switching shows for one evening.
When the Hollywood strikes forced them temporarily off the air the following year, they teamed up with fellow late-night hosts Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers and John Oliver to launch a podcast called Strike Force Five.
Last year, Fallon issued a public defense of Kimmel, who was in the midst of an explosive spat with the Trump administration.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! was briefly suspended that September after its host suggested that Charlie Kirk’s killer may have been part of the ‘MAGA gang,’ prompting the FCC chairman to publicly threaten a probe into the show.
The early murder investigation indicated that the accused gunman Tyler Robinson held leftist views and allegedly texted his live-in transgender lover Lance Twiggs, aka Luna, that he shot the conservative influencer because he ‘had enough of his hatred.’
After Kimmel was taken off air, Fallon used his own show to say: ‘I do know Jimmy Kimmel, and he’s a decent, funny, and loving guy, and I hope he comes back.’
Kimmel’s suspension met with an explosive outcry from Hollywood, and ABC backpedaled, restoring his show to the airwaves within a week.
Robinson, 23, is now standing trial for Kirk’s murder in Utah, where if convicted he could face execution by either lethal injection or firing squad.