A “political event” caused Donald Trump to cancel tonight’s scheduled appearance on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the GOP front-runner told Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity this afternoon.
“I heard you were supposed to be on Jimmy Kimmel tonight, did something happen?” Hannity asked Trump during taping for the 10 PM show.
“No. I have a political event, but I am going to do his show in two weeks,” Trump responded via satellite from Trump Tower. “I have a big political event which I can’t skip, and I told him, I said, ‘You know I have this event, I can’t skip it.’ But I will be doing it in two weeks once I am out in Los Angeles.”
Trump taped his appearance at 1:30 PM ET today. Kimmel’s show traveled to Brooklyn this week and was scheduled to tape today at 3:30 PM ET from the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House.
Kimmel, breaking the news this morning on Howard Stern’s satellite radio show, said he wasn’t sure what happened, in re the Trump booking. Stern is scheduled to be Kimmel’s guest on Friday. Trump’s visit was to have marked his first appearance on JKL since announcing his White House bid. Trump already has appeared on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show on CBS, and Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show on NBC – and, as with every TV program on which he appears, goosed their ratings.
JKL isn’t the only late-night show to suffer a last-minute bailout from a political candidate in this boisterous election cycle; earlier this month, House Speaker John Boehner canceled on Fallon at the eleventh hour, after Rep. Kevin McCarthy bailed abruptly on his bid to replace Boehner as Speaker.
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