Jimmy Kimmel takes summer break, Rosie O'Donnell joins guest hosts

Jimmy Kimmel is stepping away from his ABC show for two months, and the choice of Rosie O’Donnell as one of the stand-ins gives the summer schedule a sharper political edge than a routine vacation usually carries. Kimmel said on the June 18 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! that he would take the next two months off, “this time voluntarily,” a line that pointed back to his suspension last year after comments tied to reactions to Charlie Kirk’s death.

ABC’s summer plan keeps the show on its regular weeknight perch at 11:35 p.m. ET, with episodes streaming the next day on Hulu, but the host chair will rotate through a roster that looks more like a curated statement than a simple replacement list. Tiffany Haddish will open the run the week of July 6, followed by Anthony Anderson, Ike Barinholtz, Colman Domingo, Rosie O’Donnell and Jelly Roll. ABC also said the show will run repeats until after the July 4 holiday before new episodes return.

O’Donnell’s turn, which is set to begin the week of August 17, stands out because it connects the late-night slot to one of the country’s longest-running celebrity-political feuds. Her public clash with Donald Trump dates to 2006, when she criticized him on The View, and Trump has continued to target her in public remarks over the years. In that context, Kimmel’s decision to put O’Donnell in the chair reads as more than a summer substitution. It signals a late-night brand that is still comfortable leaning into resistance politics, especially for viewers who expect comedy to engage directly with power rather than soften it.

That matters because the modern late-night audience is no longer just buying jokes at 11:35. It is choosing a political identity as much as a host. By giving the summer stretch to figures such as Haddish, Anderson, Domingo and O’Donnell, ABC is aiming at a broad coalition of viewers with different cultural attachments, while still keeping the show recognizably inside Kimmel’s orbit. The upside is freshness and reach. The risk is dilution, because rotating hosts can either expand a show’s audience or blur the singular voice that makes a late-night franchise feel like a franchise at all.

ABC’s own episode guide showed Kimmel still hosting new episodes through June 18, including appearances by Larry David and Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., underscoring that the handoff was a planned summer pattern rather than an abrupt shift. For now, the network is betting that a familiar brand can survive a changing face, and that O’Donnell’s presence will sharpen, not scramble, the message.