Jimmy Kimmel ran a tight ship at Sunday night's Emmy Awards, and he got some pretty big laughs, too. The secret of his success seems to have been modesty, his willingness to be upstaged — by Jeb Bush in the delightful opening sequence, for instance. He also played the fool to Matt Damon, the frequent (willing) butt of Kimmel's jokes on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Kimmel's show was up for an Emmy, and it's not clear what the joke would have been if he had won — he lost to John Oliver's Last Week Tonight — but since Kimmel didn't get a trophy, Damon took his revenge to his and the crowd's evident pleasure.
Bush (or "Jeb exclamation point") was only one of many stars to appear in the opening and kick Kimmel out of their vehicles — James Corden's karaoke SUV, a Modern Family minivan, the world's most infamous Ford Bronco, even a dragon.
Kimmel even shared his Emmy duties with his mother, and the kids from Stranger Things, plus some PB&J sandwiches with the poor, starving celebrities:
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Finally, you can watch Kimmel's opening monologue, replete with jokes about O.J. Simpson and Donald Trump — he pointedly blamed Mark Burnett, the executive producer of NBC's The Apprentice, for Trump's candidacy.
Burnett, from Britain, responded later that Trump was eminently grateful for the free publicity, so it looks like everyone got a good laugh on Sunday.
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