Fresh off her Best Actress in a Comedy Emmy win, “Abbott Elementary” creator and star Quinta Brunson swung by “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Wednesday night to break down the Season 3 premiere of her ABC sitcom.
The two-episode premiere, which also aired Wednesday, memorably featured a cameo from Philadelphia Eagles players Jason Kelce, Jalen Hurts and Brandon Graham.
Jason Kelce is of course brother to Travis Kelce, who’s been all over the news lately for not only making Sunday’s Super Bowl but for dating the world’s most famous woman, Taylor Swift. Brunson appeared to know that fact, too — because she accidentally slipped and said Travis cameoed on her sitcom, not Jason. She quickly corrected herself after the flub.
“Travis is the one with his shirt on,” Kimmel joked in response, nodding to Jason Kelce’s enthusiasm at a recent Kansas City Chiefs game where he tore his short off in celebration.
Brunson smiled at Kimmel as he gently ribbed her mistake. She responded with, “He’s everywhere!”
Brunson’s “Abbott Elementary ” follows a public school in Philadelphia; thus, when the episode depicted the school celebrating career day, members of the Philadelphia sports team made an unexpected appearance in the show on a video call to the classroom.
Getting the group of football stars together was a challenge, Brunson said. Based on the players’ schedules with filming so close to preparing for their important playoff games, the creator pivoted and figured that a zoom call could manage. In fact, it turned out very well.
“I was just honored we were able to have them, I didn’t want to disturb their schedule. So they were able to join us for a Zoom performance, which wound up being, in my opinion, way funnier than it would have been,” Brunson told Kimmel.
She added that since the players were on a video call, it was “very true to life, ” as post-COVID culture has made Zoom and other video conference platforms a common way to stay connected.
Abbott Elementary is on ABC every Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m PT time and streams on Hulu the next day.
Watch Brunson’s full “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” interview in the video above.
