Jimmy Kimmel says he doesn’t see himself as a defender of democracy

Jimmy Kimmel poses in the press room with the award for host for a game show for "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" during night two of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jimmy Kimmel is no defender of democracy.

At least he turned down the title when a reporter suggested he might be.

“Those are heavy thoughts and I have a tendency to to reject them," he said backstage this weekend at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. "I don’t really feel like I’m defending democracy.”

He said he's doing something much smaller when he lays into President Donald Trump.

“I’m giving this guy a little poke, and he deserves it, and I enjoy it, and I hope that people enjoy it too,” Kimmel said.

As the 57-year-old TV personality spoke he was holding his fourth Primetime Emmy Award, this one for best game show host for his helming of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” He's up for another Sunday for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

Kimmel is, undoubtedly though, a defender of Stephen Colbert — and voted for him too.

When his friend and fellow late-night host Colbert had his “Late Show” canceled in July, three days after criticizing a settlement between Trump and CBS parent company Paramount Global as it was seeking administration approval for a merger, Kimmel cursed CBS and shared his love for Colbert. Executives insisted the decision was financial.

Later he erected a billboard in Los Angeles declaring “I'm voting for Stephen," throwing his endorsement to his opponent in their Emmy race in the talk series category.

Kimmel was on a long vacation from ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" when Colbert's cancellation happened, but weighed in when he returned last week.

“CBS, all of a sudden out of the blue, claimed ‘The Late Show’ was losing $40 million a year and then miraculously got FCC approval to sell their company, which is what they wanted," he said.

He also responded to Trump, who posted on Truth Social, “I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next,” Trump wrote. “Has even less talent than Colbert.”

“Oh, you delicate, chubby little teacup, did we hurt your feelings?" Kimmel said on his show. “You want us to be canceled because we make jokes about you. I thought you were against cancel culture.”

Somehow none of Kimmel's Emmys are for the late-night show he's hosted for 22 years — though most of his 27 nominations are.

One is for hosting the Oscars. Two are for the special all-star recreations of old sitcoms he produced between 2019 and 2021, “Live in Front of a Studio Audience.” Asked if he's given any thought to reviving those, he said not without his partner in the project, Norman Lear, who died at age 101 in 2023.

“It would be too emotional to do it without Norman," Kimmel said. “I don’t know if my heart could take it.”

He’s also a three-time Emmys host — a job that this year will go to Nate Bargatze when the show airs on CBS.

And he won a daytime Emmy as best game show host for his work on Comedy Central's “Win Ben Stein's Money” way back in 1999, before the award got promoted to primetime.

“When we won that Emmy, we went on the air the same week ‘South Park’ went on the air, and Comedy Central was not a channel that many people watched," Kimmel said at the Creative Arts Emmys. "And we were up against these titans, the same shows we’re up against now, ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and ‘Jeopardy.’ We didn’t know anyone was watching the show. I think it was the first Emmy Comedy Central ever won."

Asked how long he plans to keep his current show going, he kept it vague.

“I’m not prepared to answer that question, but it is something I think about a lot," he said with a smile. “Each day is a new adventure, and I kind of take them as they come, is that a good way of dodging the question?”