Jimmy Kimmel/photo by Matt Sayles/AP
If you tuned in for "Jimmy Kimmel Live" this week at its usual time, you missed almost half the show. That's because KSTP is now running "JKL" directly against "The Tonight Show" and "The Late Show" at 10:35 p.m., instead of at 11 p.m.
"The fundamental reason is that it was important to ABC," said Rob Hubbard, the station's general manager. The time shift was part of Hubbard Broadcasting's recent renewal with the network. In exchange, the locally owned company got some things that it wanted. Hubbard would not go into details.
The move means KSTP will no longer have an hour of local news late at night..
"It hurts. It hurts a lot," Hubbard said. "But we did some research and found out some people thought we needed a full hour to do a proper newscast. We know that's not true."
Kimmel himself is excited about the move.
"I am very happy to be on earlier," he said Wednesday night in an e-mail. "The whole thing made me tired just thinking about it. I think the result will be a huge boost in productivity for the Twin Cities."
