Jimmy Kimmel Tears Up During Moving Letterman Tribute

Jimmy Kimmel barely got through five seconds of his tribute to David Letterman last night before he started tearing up, telling the story of how he would stay up late every night as a kid watching his late night idol on TV.

As he did when Letterman finally visited his show in 2012, Kimmel shared photos of his “L8 NITE” license plate and birthday cake and essentially blamed his obsession with Dave for his lack of action in high school.

“I learned almost nothing in college,” Kimmel said, his voice starting to crack again, “but watching Late Night, not only did I learn how to do everything from Dave, the reason I have this show is because the executives at ABC saw me when I was a guest on Dave’s show and hired me to host this show.”

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“So, I want to thank Dave and his writers and producers,” Kimmel continued. He urged his viewers to tune in to Letterman’s last show Wednesday night instead of watching the rerun he plans to air opposite it, “especially if you’re a young person who doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about.”

Watch video below, via ABC:

[Photo via screengrab]

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