Jimmy Kimmel Hasn't Actually Hosted The Emmys Much

Deep breaths. With the Primetime Emmys coming up on Sunday, Sept. 18, you're probably getting incredibly overexcited to discover whether Beyoncé will be completely robbed of an Emmy or not. Because, sure, while there are some incredibly strong contenders this year, it doesn't detract from the fact that Lemonade was all anyone talked about for a month. But if you're not all about Beyoncé, all the time, the other pressing question you might be chewing over is presenter-related: how many times has Kimmel hosted the Emmys, anyway?

It's a valid question. While Kimmel's a safe pair of hands on his talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, it doesn't necessarily follow that this will translate into Emmys presenting-superstardom. Arguably, probably a more telling factor would be how much experience he has in presenting the Emmys. After all, the host is, at 48 years old, a presenter who should have a wealth of experience; he's been presenting since he did radio in high school. Besides which, he's popular and seems well-connected.

Off the top of my head, my assumption was four times, minimum. But I'm just plain wrong — for reasons we'll get to in a second. Kimmel has only presented the show once before, for the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2012.

Kimmel's 2012 Emmy performance got all the praise from a wide range of publications: the man was great, and this is probably why he's been selected this time round. Even at the time, there was confusion over the fact that Kimmel hadn't previously helmed the good ship Emmys, with the LA Times blog deeming it surprising "considering the amount of hosting work he's done for other awards show, including the American Music Awards and ESPN's ESPY Awards."

But what I and you and everyone we know are probably thinking of when we start thinking "What? Jimmy Kimmel's always on the Emmys" is that he is — just not in a presenting role. The host, as a famous funny human, is always winning Emmys, not presenting them. In both 1999 and 2001, he won the Daytime Emmy Award For An Outstanding Game Show Host for his then-show Win Ben Stein's Money. Then in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015, he was consistency itself by winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series each year. Besides which, in 2013, he also won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series, again for Jimmy Kimmel Live!

So, yeah. If you've been associating Kimmel with the warm glow of Emmys' approbation, you're not wrong, it's just that he's been more often on the receiving end of an Emmy than he has on the presenting end. Thankfully, given how darn good at it he is, all this is set to change from Sunday onwards.