Howard Stern Challenges Jimmy Kimmel on 'Fake Friendship' with Jimmy Fallon
The radio host confronted Kimmel, suggesting his amicable relationship with his late-night rival is performative.
Howard Stern has accused Jimmy Kimmel of maintaining a "fake friendship" with his late-night competitor, Jimmy Fallon. Stern, who has a longstanding friendship with Kimmel, voiced his suspicions during an interview on The Howard Stern Show this week, suggesting Kimmel feels the need to prove that he and Fallon can "all get along."
Fallon, 52, has been in direct competition with Kimmel, 58, in the late-night television landscape since taking over The Tonight Show in 2014. Despite their professional rivalry, the two hosts have often publicly presented a friendly demeanor towards each other.
"I wish you would just come clean. You don’t enjoy being around Jimmy Fallon," Stern reportedly told Kimmel, as cited by The Daily Beast. Stern posited that Kimmel's insistence on appearing friendly with Fallon is an effort to "prove that: 'Oh, we can all get along.'"
Kimmel, however, pushed back against Stern's assertion, defending his relationship with Fallon. "I cannot imagine anyone not having fun hanging around with Jimmy Fallon, because Jimmy Fallon, as you know, is a lot of fun," Kimmel stated. He also questioned the logic of pretending to be friends, asking, "Do you think that I have so much free time in my life and so much open space in my life that I would spend... that I would waste that time maintaining a pretend friendship for no reason whatsoever?"
Kimmel recounted instances of their interactions, including attending dinner with Fallon. He also recalled his initial congratulatory tweet to Fallon when he was announced as Jay Leno's successor in 2013, which read: "congratulations to my dear, sweet @jimmyfallon - a formidable rival and an incredible lover." At the time, Kimmel told CBS News that he and Fallon were "very friendly" and that he expected their relationship to remain amicable, comparing them to "Peaches and Herb."
Stern has previously facilitated interactions between the two hosts. In 2017, he revealed that he had arranged for Kimmel and Fallon, along with their wives, to have dinner together after discovering they had been exchanging emails.
Kimmel and Fallon have engaged in joint ventures, including a prank where they swapped shows for one evening on April Fool's Day in 2022. More recently, during the Hollywood strikes, they collaborated with fellow late-night hosts Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver on a podcast titled "Strike Force Five."
Fallon has also publicly supported Kimmel. In September, when Kimmel's show was briefly suspended after comments he made regarding the Trump administration, Fallon used his own program to defend him, stating, "I do know Jimmy Kimmel, and he’s a decent, funny, and loving guy, and I hope he comes back."