Jimmy Kimmel is taking a break following the death of his friend and bandleader Cleto Escobedo III, otherwise known and Jr.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! will take the rest of the week off. It comes after Kimmel gave an emotional tribute to his pal, who he has known since childhood.
“Cherish your friends, we’re not here forever,” he closed out his monologue. “Thank you for indulging me, we’re going to take the next couple of nights off, I wanted to be here tonight to tell you about my friend and Cleto loved Eddie Murphy and he wouldn’t have wanted us to miss this.”
Kimmel’s guests tonight included Murphy, who was promoting his Being Eddie doc for Netflix, and Morgan Fairchild.
The pause will see the show reschedule upcoming guests; Danny DeVito, Howard Jones, Debbie Gibson were set to feature on Wednesday’s show and Jason Bateman, Mr. T, and Susanna Hoffs were due for Thursday.
Kimmel opened the show by saying, “We’ve been on the air for almost 23 years and I’ve had to do some hard monologues along the way,” he said. “But this will… This one’s the hardest because late last night, early this morning, we lost someone very special who was too young to go.”
He also recalled that they both were fans of David Letterman and how it was “a really big deal for both of us,” when he made his first appearance in 1999.
The comedian called Escobedo a child prodigy, praising him for his saxophone-playing skills and highlighted his work with Paula Abdul.
