Jimmy Kimmel (sort of) Live!

Jimmy Kimmel Live! is one of the top ranked late night talk shows on television today. Kimmel’s witty sense of humour, and guest interaction makes for an enjoyable experience, not only for his live studio audience, but for the viewers at home.

Like most late night talk shows, or talk shows in general, the show, despite it’s name, does not actually air live. So what makes Jimmy Kimmel Live! a “live” show? For one, it is the live studio audience. Kimmel interacts with his audience at various points throughout the show. Whether it is the audience laughing, cheering, or also just generally reacting to his jokes/comments, he also has them interact in various segments.

One of his most popular, and long running segments is “pedestrian question“. In this segment, Kimmel’s crew, prior to the show head out onto the street, and as the name suggests, ask passing pedestrians a yes or no question. The audience his then asked to shout out whether they think the person answers yes or no.

During segments such as this one, the barrier between live, and not-live is blurred. As an audience, we are seeing a live studio audience, and it’s host, interacting with pre-planned, recorded, and edited content. This is common trope that many talk shows use, such as on The Tonight Show, and The Ellen Show.

Nowadays, although live shows, such as Kimmel, are not technically text-book-definition live, they aim to create the same viewing experience for their audience, as if they were watching a show truly live. As well, despite pre-recording, most late night shows are very minimally edited, adding to the live experience. Some editing will include the bleeping of swear words, or cutting certain things out if it it is deemed too inappropriate for the viewer, or the shot is too chaotic.

Åsa Kroon Lundell, explains in ‘The design and scripting of ‘unscripted’ talk: liveness versus control in a TV broadcast interview’ that, “live-shot material may be used in a programme to enhance its sense of liveness”. And this is essentially what Jimmy Kimmel Live! is. It is live-shot material, that appears to the viewer as though it is happening in that very moment.

Although it can be disheartening to think of the show in the sense that it isn’t technically live, despite the ironic title, as Scannel states in ‘The Meaning of Live’, “The demonic problem of live speech-act-events on radio and television is the ever present possibility of their breakdown, either through technical error or human performance failure.”. Living in the age of social media, where everything is so instant, mistakes made on live tv are not so easily pushed away. The pre-taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live! gives Kimmel and his crew a sense of security.

The downfall to the pre-recorded element of the show is that it takes away the uncertainty and anticipation of something going wrong, an element that excites the home audience.

Jimmy Kimmel Live! I believe takes all the elements of a truly live show and showcases them brilliantly. I feel as though when I am watching the show being aired, that I’m apart of the live audience. As an audience member, to an extent I can participate in segments, and feel the anticipation for what could happen next. Kimmel creates a personal connection with not only the live studio audience, but the audiences watching at home, which is why I think the show was, and continues to be so successful around the world.

Resources:

Scannell, Paddy. Television and the meaning of ‘live’: an enquiry into the human situation. Polity Press, 2013. Scannell_chapter 7_The Meaning of Live, p 6

Lundell, Kroon Asa. “The design and scripting of ‘unscripted’ talk: liveness versus control in a TV broadcast interview” Media, Culture & Society, vol. 31, no. 2, 2009, p 273 The design and scripting of ‘unscripted’ talk- liveness versus control in a TV broadcast interview

 

Leave a Reply