He had to say something about it eventually. Jimmy Kimmel managed to become the most controversial part of Monday night’s generally cringe-worthy Emmys when a bit that started with him being dragged “unconscious” by Will Arnett onto the stage to present the award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series ended with him getting dragged on Twitter for remaining on stage during Abbott Elementary creator Quinta Brunson’s acceptance speech.
Instead of addressing the incident during his monologue on Tuesday, Kimmel waited until Wednesday when Brunson herself was scheduled to be his guest.
The host was more than 10 minutes into his opening monologue when Brunson strode on stage holding her Emmy to ask him for a little favor before their sit-down.
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“You know how when you win an Emmy you only have 45 seconds to do an acceptance speech, which is not that much time?” she said. “And then you get less time because somebody does a dumb comedy bit that goes on a bit too long.” So with that in mind, Brunson told Kimmel she was “demanding” some extra time on his show to thank all of the people she didn’t get to on Monday night.
Immediately following her speech, Brunson was asked what she thought about Kimmel’s presence on stage during her big moment, and responded that it didn’t bother her that much. “I think in that moment I was just really happy that it was Jimmy up there. I kind of consider him one of the comedy godfathers,” she said, noting that the fellow ABC star was an early champion of her show. “I don’t know. Tomorrow maybe I’ll be mad at him. I’m going to be on his show on Wednesday, so I might punch him in the face. I don’t know, we’ll see what happens.”
Brunson’s Emmy-winning co-star Sheryl Lee Ralph was less generous, saying on Wednesday that she felt Kimmel had disrespected Brunson. “I told him, too! To his face!” she added. “And he understood.”
When she finally sat down on the couch next to Kimmel Wednesday night, there were no punches thrown, but she did get an apology. “People got upset, they said I stole your moment and maybe I did and I’m very sorry if I did do that,” he said, before correcting himself. “I’m sorry I did do that, actually. And also, the last thing I would ever want to do is upset you because I think so much of you. I think you know that, I hope you know that.”
Brunson, in turn, accepted his apology, saying, “Thank you, that’s kind, but honestly I had a good night.”
Kimmel, of course, couldn’t leave it there. “And I should also say, it was really Will Arnett’s fault, the whole thing. He drugged me and he dragged me out there and I was unconscious,” he said, adding, “Screw Bojack and that Horseman he rode in on!”
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