During his late-night monologue on ABC Wednesday night, Jimmy Kimmel waded into the brewing controversy over dueling town hall events happening Thursday on both his network and NBC.
“You know, there was supposed to be a debate tomorrow night, but since Trump would not agree to the virtual format that they wanted to have because he tested positive for the coronavirus, he backed out altogether,” the host explained. “So because there was no debate, Biden agreed to do a town hall on ABC that night.”
Then came the announcement that Trump would also be doing a town hall on NBC at the exact same time. “So that settles it,” Kimmel joked. “Now I know what I’m gonna do, I’m going to vote for both of them.”
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“Thanks, NBC,” he continued. “First The Apprentice and now this. Why not a new Bill Cosby special while we’re at it?”
Noting that there is “no good reason to hold these events simultaneously,” Kimmel insinuated that “obviously Trump wanted this because he knows he’ll get better ratings than Joe Biden,” given that getting a town hall on NBC means it will likely air on all of NBC’s other channels as well, including MSNBC and CNBC.
“Of course more people will watch Trump,” he said. “That doesn’t mean anything. If my choices are watching a documentary about the Bill of Rights or a guy getting hit in the nuts with a shovel, I’m going shovel every single time!”
Or, as another ABC employee Nate Silver put it on Wednesday, “Some people seem to be operating under the mistaken assumption that more airtime is better for Trump.”
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