Getty Jimmy Kimmel, host and executive producer of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and host of the "90th Oscars", speaks onstage during the ABC Television/Disney portion of the 2018 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena on January 8, 2018 in Pasadena, California.
The 2018 Academy Awards are finally here, and Jimmy Kimmel will be hosting the show for the second year in a row.
Last year, the award for Best Picture went, at first, to La La Land before being corrected to Moonlight. The flub was one of the most talked-about events of the year, and led Kimmel to close out the show by joking, “I knew I would screw this show up. I really did. I promise I’ll never come back.” Tonight, however, Kimmel is back, and the show will air live from LA at 8pm ET/5pm PT.
Kimmel’s presence on the Oscars stage tonight will have fans curious about how much he’s making for the hosting gig. How much does an Oscars host make? What’s Kimmel’s salary?
Kimmel has a reported net worth of $35 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. While this sum is mostly thanks to “Jimmy Kimmel Live”, the talkshow host is also known for other hosting, acting, and voice acting jobs.
Read on for more details about Kimmel’s salary and net worth.
1. He Was Paid $15,000 to Host Last Year’s Oscars
(ABC/Jeff Lipsky)
Last year, Kimmel made $15k to host the Oscars. He revealed the amount on KROQs morning show, saying, “I’m not sure I was supposed to reveal this, but nobody told me not to. I consider this their fault.” Asked if that was the same amount Chris Rock and Billy Crystal received, Kimmel said, “That’s what they told me.”
Last year, Kimmel announced on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” that he would be hosting the Academy Awards. “The producers and the Academy went through a long list of names, and in the end, they decided that — since I am already right across the street from where they do the show — I was the closest person to host.”
While Kimmel may be walking away from tonight’s show with $15,000 extra, this evening’s nominees in the acting and directing categories are going home with Oscars gift bags valued at a whopping $100,000. Forbes quotes Distinctive Assets Lash Fary as explaining, “We are not gifting Oscar nominees out of a sense of philanthropy… We are gifting them for the same reason that they are paid upwards of $20 million for a single film…because their personal brand has value as a commodity.”
What’s included in the gift bags? The swag bags will include a 12-night Tanzania vacation for two, a week-long stay at the Golden Door spa, a DNA kit from 23andMe, a six-night and seven day stay at Koloa Landing Resort in Kauai, a 10,000-bowl donation from Halo, Purely for Pets, pepper spray, a year’s supply of Healing Saint products, a bath bomb from PETA, bluetooth speakers, and false lashes, among other things. Click here to get more details on the gift bags.
2. He Has a Reported Annual Salary of $15 Million
Getty Jimmy Kimmel, host and executive producer of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and host of the “90th Oscars”, speaks onstage during the ABC Television/Disney portion of the 2018 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour at The Langham Huntington, Pasadena on January 8, 2018 in Pasadena, California.
While $15,000 may seem like a hefty sum for a one-night gig, it’s nothing compared to Kimmel’s reported annual salary of $15 million.
According to Time, celebrity hosts for the Oscars are also given a show rider in additionto the $15,000. The rider is a “list of demands that is added to their contracts spelling out what the performer requires in their dressing room or after the show. Riders can include anything from certain kinds of food to scented candles, personal yoga teachers and chefs, specific colored couches and $300 bottles of champagne. Some estimates say the riders can get into the low six figures, as some celebrities have especially extravagant requests.”
These perks stack up nicely compared to those given to Super Bowl performers. According to Time, artists at the Super Bowl are not paid at all.
3. He Has Produced Shows like ‘Crank Yankers’, ‘Sports Show with Norm Macdonald’, and ‘the Andy Milonakis Show’
Along with his work as a host, Kimmel has produced shows like Crank Yankers, Sports Show with Norm Macdonald, and The Andy Milonakis Show.
Kimmel was also the producer of 13 episodes of The Adam Caroll Project.
Kimmel was born in Brooklyn, New York. His mother, Joan, was a homemaker, and his father, James, was an IBM Executive.
When he was 9, Kimmel’s family uprooted to Las Vegas. He went on to study at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, for one year, and Arizona State University or two years. Kimmel married his high school sweetheart, Gina Maddy, in 1988. The couple divorced in 2002.
In 2013, he married Molly McNearney, a co-head writer on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
4. He Began His Television Career in 1997
Kimmel got his start on television in Win Ben Stein’s Money, which began airing on Comedy Central in 1997. Together, the pair impressed audiences and earned an Emmy award for Best Game Show Host.
It was during his time on the show that Kimmel co-hosted and co-produced The Man Show on Comedy Central. Afterward, Kimmel created and produced Crank Yankers.
In an interview with The AV Club, Kimmel was asked if voice actors on Crank Yankers helped conceive the gags. He said, “Sometimes. Mostly it’s just as simple as, if we make the calls from Vegas, I pick up a Thrifty Nickel or Penny Saver at 7-Eleven on the way in, and go through and randomly make calls to some of the phone numbers. Some people are not great at making crank calls, and you want to get a few phone numbers in advance so our writers can come up with a bunch of different concepts. But sometimes people do come in with their own ideas, like something they did as a kid that they want to do again, or something they just thought of.”
Asked if ever feels bad for the people on the show, he said, “Every once in a while. But we’re relentless. And the truth is that people are always kind of relieved when they find out it’s a joke, because they get so, so mad. When they get really mad, we usually wait a couple of days and then contact them. But we don’t take no for an answer very often.”
5. He Has Four Children
Tv host Jimmy Kimmel, wife Molly McNearney, and daughter Jane Kimmel attend the 7th annual L.A. Loves Alex’s Lemonade at UCLA on September 10, 2016 in Los Angeles, California.
With his first wife, Gina Maddy, Kimmel has two children. A daughter, Katherine, (27) and a son, Kevin (25). With his current wife, Molly, he has a daughter, Jane (3), and a son, Billy, who will turn 1 on April 21.
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune last week, Kimmel revealed that at one point, he didn’t think he wanted children anymore. His wife, after all, is 11 years younger than him, and Kimmel had two teenagers by the time he began dating McNearney. Eventually, though, he saw a psychiatrist and realized he did truly want to expand the family.
Katherine, who goes by Katie, is a ceramics artist. You can check out her website here. Katie graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a BFA. Kevin, meanwhile, has worked on Jimmy Kimmel Live as a production assistant. He has also worked on Tosh.O, BrainSurge, Big Brother, Dance on Sunset, and Last Comic Standing.