Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show launched in 2003 with writers like his pals Adam Carolla and Bill Simmons, and family members like Cousin Sal. Since then, the series has evolved to reflect the modern importance of different voices, something Kimmel credits Twitter for — in part, at least.
“Late-night writers room have long been a bastion of white male, Ivy League educatedness…” a reporter began her question for Kimmel Monday at the Television Critics Association press tour.
“Thank God,” Kimmel interjected. “By the way, I’m not going to be accused of being Ivy League-educated. That did not happen.”
“My question is: How has your room evolved and tell us about the makeup of it,” the reporter followed up.
“I mean, at the beginning it really was,” he replied. “It wasn’t so much– I wouldn’t even say ‘educated,’ in the room. It was mostly like my friends and my cousins and stuff like that.
“Over the years we broadened our horizons, and I think that Twitter was a big part of that,” Kimmel continued. “Most of what comes out of Twitter is terrible, but Twitter is a great place to find writers. So, instead of hoping more diverse writers came to us, we were able to actually seek them out.”
Guess the social media platform is not just good for “Mean Tweets.”