Jimmy Kimmel spoke to ET on the set of ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' and provided a health update on his son, Billy.
Jimmy Kimmel is giving an update on his son Billy's health.
The host recently spoke with ET's Kevin Frazier on the set of the revamped Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and provided a heartfelt update.
Kimmel balanced discussing his son's recent third open heart surgery surgery with the excitement surrounding the return of his popular game show. Reflecting on how he juggles his various commitments, including Millionaire, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and family life, Kimmel humorously remarked, "Yeah you know what I do, I just cut out all the family time, I ignore my children."
He quickly clarified the reality of his busy schedule, noting, "I'll see you at your high school graduation. Yeah, no, the truth of the matter is even though it's a whole season of shows, we shoot it in a weekend so it's not that big of a deal, I miss the weekend."
Kimmel shared encouraging news about his son Billy, who underwent his third open-heart surgery in May. "Billy's doing great. He had open-heart surgery; you know he's got the scars and everything, but he's just mentally right back where he was which is crazy. Physically, you know, we're gonna have to be careful with him for a couple of months but he's doing really well," Kimmel said.
Talking about the resilience of children, Kimmel explained, "They're made of rubber, you know, everybody says that kids are so resilient and the doctors actually explained it to me which I don't know why it never occurred to me before because they're still growing."
In May, the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host took to Instagram to share a picture of his and wife Molly McNearney's son smiling big in the hospital room, as he gave his followers an update after his surgery.
"This weekend, our boy Billy had his third (of three, we hope) open heart surgery. We went into this experience with a lot of optimism and nearly as much fear and came out with a new valve inside a happy, healthy kid," the proud dad wrote.
In 2017, Kimmel tearfully shared in a now-viral monologue that his son had been born with a heart defect and underwent open-heart surgery at three days old. In the years since, Kimmel has echoed his gratitude to all those involved in his medical care in every post commemorating Billy's birthday since he was born.
On the set of Millionaire, Kimmel maintains consistency by wearing the same suit each night to ensure smooth editing. "You know I wear the same thing every night so that when we edit the show, we boil everything down, we put everybody in order, it doesn't look different so I have like a uniform," he explained.
Discussing the unique aspects of the show's set, Kimmel described, "Well first of all we're standing on a TV, a big round TV, which is kind of crazy right? ... I don't think they had this in the beginning, you know, the first season it was all... the whole set was made of Lite-Brites. It took months to put together so we have this TV and it can be pretty much anything you want, and then you got two hot seats because this year we have not one but two celebrity teams."
Highlighting some of the upcoming celebrity appearances, Kimmel shared anecdotes about Zach Braff and Donald Faison. "They played doctors on TV, but then their phone-a-friend, who in their minds at least is smarter than they are, was the janitor on the show. So, show business throws it all out of whack—you have the doctors asking the janitor what they should do," Kimmel laughed.
Kimmel also mentioned John Stamos and Dave Coulier’s participation, praising Coulier’s trivia skills. "Coulier knows—he's a trivia guy, he knows a lot of stuff, he did a lot of impersonations. Also, we heard a lot of cartoon characters and a lot of dead celebrities, but they were good, they did pretty well," he said.
Reflecting on the legacy of the show's original host, Regis Philbin,. Kimmel expressed deep admiration. "Not only was he the best of the best, we now just think of 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' and we think of Regis, but nobody was thinking about Regis when this show went on the air. Regis wasn't really... he wasn't a game show host, he was, you know, crazy uncle Regis in the morning and it just worked so well," Kimmel said, paying tribute to the iconic television personality.
Philbin died in July 2022. He was 88 years old. He was the show's first-ever host in 1999, and held the role until 2002. He also hosted three additional special event series that aired on ABC in 2004 and 2009. Throughout the years, Meredith Vieira, Cedric the Entertainer, Terry Crews and Chris Harrison have served as hosts.
The season premiere of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire airs Wednesday, July 10, at 8 p.m. on ABC.
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