Brace yourself for dad jokes. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has set his late-night debut. The Democratic vice presidential candidate will appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live this coming Monday, Oct. 7.
Despite a whirlwind of campaign appearances since he was named Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate on Aug. 6, he hasn’t done too many TV sit-downs. Monday’s debate with Donald Trump running mate J.D. Vance was the most screen time he’s gotten by quite a bit. Now he’ll sit down with Kimmel in Hollywood for an appearance that’s sure to rely heavily on the candidate’s Midwestern affability.
It’ll be appearance No. 2 for Walz that night. On Tuesday, it was announced that Harris would have a sit-down on a special Oct. 7 outing of 60 Minutes — during a segment that will also feature her running mate. (Trump was also set to appear on the episode but backed out.)
The booking is particularly interesting given the fact that neither presidential candidate nor their running mates have been on any of the late-night shows this campaign. Naturally, Trump has not paid a visit to any of the stages from which he’s so frequently mocked. As for Harris, she’s been noticeably discerning about when she’s engaged with the media since she replaced President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket. Walz’s appearance on Kimmel is quite a get.
Another place you won’t be seeing any of the presidential candidates is Saturday Night Live. Executive producer Lorne Michaels revealed as much to The Hollywood Reporter during a recent interview. “You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions,” he said, and then clarified: “You can’t have the main candidates without having all the candidates, and there are lots of minor candidates that are only on the ballot in, like, three states and that becomes really complicated.”
As for Walz, he found himself on SNL in other ways. Jim Gaffigan debuted his impersonation of the Minnesota governor during this past week’s premiere of the sketch show’s 50th season.
Jimmy Kimmel Live airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu.
Source: Hollywoodreporter
