Personal Dork Assistant

You've Gotta Be Kidding

The Sports Guy is leaving Boston?

To work in Hollywood?

Hollywood!

Writing for Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show on ABC?

Jimmy Kimmel!

To anybody aware of mid-brow American culture, "late night talk show starring Jimmy Kimmel" is one of those ideas that just screams DOA like the girl who wanders off by herself in a horror movie. Which makes this all the more surprising because Simmons won himself an audience by selling himself as the ultimate mid-brow American male. Quotes from Swingers, fantasy sports, Celtic season tickets, weekends in Vegas. The guy with a wisecrack for everyone and everything (except Red Auerbach), and his synopsis of Jimmy Kimmel?

"He has an innate knack for making people comfortable, regardless of the situation, which is the best possible quality for a talk show host. He has the good sense to surround himself with quality people. His energy is amazing -- there isn't a second of the day when he isn't trying to make somebody laugh, only there isn't the same desperation like there is with someone like Conan O'Brien. And it's humanly impossible to dislike Jimmy -- he's the proverbial Guy's Guy, only he's funny enough and creative enough to get paid for it."

Jesus H. Christ, someone crowbar his head out of Kimmel's ass already.

Of course, that's what all his readers are saying, speaking as mainstream American sports freaks. But it's actually a savvy no-risk career move for The Sports Guy. Thanks to the ABC-ESPN corporate synergy, he keeps his column on ESPN.com and ESPN Mag (drumming up interest for the show all the while). The whole BostonSportsGuy-in-LA angle is good for about a million columns. If the show tanks, he goes right back to where he was, no worse for the wear, really. It's almost enough to make me think that they hired the guy as a token celebrity-writer to pick up some buzz from the right demographic.

To build buzz with a different demographic, the NY Times Magazine also has a piece on the Jimmy Kimmel and his upcoming show. The New York Times has better writers than The Sports Guy. Jimmy Kimmel is narcoleptic. Insert your own joke here.

Posted by mikewang on 10:44 PM