Jimmy Kimmel Admits He Misjudged the Moment He Laid Down During Quinta Brunson’s Emmys Speech

Jimmy Kimmel was recently accused of white privilege when a bit at the Emmy Awards went south.

Earlier this month, Kimmel presented the award for “Writing for a Comedy Series,” alongside actor Will Arnett. As the show came back from commercial break, Arnett stood alone while Kimmel was laying on the floor.

Arnett joked that Kimmel had lost for the 13th time for an award earlier in the night and had since consumed too many “skinny margaritas.”

They announced the winner of the category, Quinta Brunson, for her work on Abbott Elementary.

Kimmel remained on the stage during her acceptance speech for which Brunson had to step over him to reach the microphone.

Immediately, Twitter blew up with accusations of Kimmel having white privilege.

Kimmel joined The Howard Stern Show on Tuesday to discuss his career and the incident eventually came up.

He explained how the bit was planned but admitted the stage was designed much different than he expected.

“How I visualize this happening is he drags me out. We read the winner, and then I’m just basically out of the shot and it’s not really a factor, but the stage was very different. The stage was like a catwalk. So I was kind of like in the way, which I did not imagine,” Kimmel said.

He moved on to address those who accused him of taking the moment away from Brunson and the accusations of white privilege.

“Now some people read — they read racial stuff into this and you know, everybody has their own perspective. But the fact of the matter is, I think there were six nominees and you know, this is a plan I had for no matter who did this — I imagined I’d be out of the shot,” he explained.

Kimmel and Brunson, who are friends, went backstage after the segment was done and chatted for a while, unaware of the controversy brewing online.

“Later at the party, we, you know, learned that people were saying, ‘Oh, you stole the moment.’ And I do understand that like, you know, it did, it did take away from — from especially afterwards because then she had to answer questions about that instead of just, you know, celebrating her Emmy,” Kimmel said.

He explained that he apologized to her later in the evening but insisted there was no ill intent.

“The idea that there was any, like, any ill intent is ridiculous,” Kimmel said.

“This is my point about the Emmys. First of all, you’re trying to do something funny, you know? No one is funny on these, nobody tries anything,” Howard Stern said. “Even this woman, Quinta, they asked her afterwards, she goes, ‘Oh, I wasn’t offended by it, but I’ll wait and see what everybody else is saying.'”

“That there are people who feel that anyone other than Quinta was owed an apology for that. It’s very — it’s puzzling,” Kimmel concluded.

Listen above via The Howard Stern Show.