KIMMEL CALLED HOWARD HIS HERO IN PRINT.HOWARD CANCELEDHIS DISNEY+ TODEFEND KIMMEL ON AIR.
One goes to bed before 8 PM. The other hosts late-night parties with Jennifer Aniston. They pick blackberries on vacation, got kicked off a golf course for being too slow, and when Jimmy Kimmel was suspended by ABC in September 2025, the first person he heard from was Howard Stern — who then took credit for getting him back on the air.
Jimmy Kimmel once wrote, in a Hollywood Reporter piece titled “Why Howard Stern Is The Most Powerful Man In New York”: “I’ve heard Howard’s voice more than that of any other human being, my mother’s included. I’m not alone.”
That sentence captures the entire arc of Howard Stern and Jimmy Kimmel’s friendship — which began with Kimmel as a fan, deepened into a genuine close friendship, and eventually produced one of the warmest, most consistently funny relationships in American media. Two men who are, in almost every measurable way, complete opposites. And who, somehow, became each other’s most reliable defenders.
I
The Fan Who Became a Friend — And Then Something More
Jimmy Kimmel started out as a Howard Stern superfan. Long before he was hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live! — before The Man Show, before any of the mainstream fame — he was tuning in every morning the way millions of other people did, letting Howard’s voice become the soundtrack to his day. He knew the references. He knew the characters. He knew the show the way a true fan knows a show: not just the greatest hits but the texture, the rhythms, the inside jokes that only make sense if you’ve been listening for years.
What makes their friendship remarkable — and what separates it from the dozens of celebrity relationships Howard has accumulated over the years — is that Kimmel never stopped being a fan even after becoming a peer. He stayed by Howard’s side through the political evolution, through the mellowing, through all the years when other longtime fans drifted away because the show had changed. Jimmy showed up. Every time. On the show, on vacation, in print, in public.
That exchange, on live television, in front of a studio audience, would be cringe-inducing from almost anyone else. From Howard Stern — a man who spent the first thirty years of his career constructing elaborate emotional defenses — it lands as genuine. Because it is. Howard does not say things like this casually. The therapy, the growth, the Beth-era Howard who makes actual emotional investments in actual friendships: that version of Howard means it when he says it. And Kimmel knows it, which is why he said it back without a flicker of irony.
II
Blackberry Picking, Golf Disasters, and Going to Bed at 8 PM
The contrast between Howard and Jimmy in real life is one of the great comedic subplots of their friendship. Howard is a recluse who goes to bed before 8 PM, paints watercolors, and describes his ideal social interaction as watching television with Beth and the cats. Jimmy is a man about town — hosting parties, attending events, schmoozing with celebrities, operating at the social frequency that Howard finds physically exhausting.
Howard has described their Mexico vacations — which include other celebrities like Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox — with the focus of a man who is genuinely bewildered that he is there at all. “We hang out and people imagine what we do. But the truth is, we went blackberry picking. We draw and paint together.” Howard even sings the “Name Game” to Kimmel’s youngest child. The most fearless man in American radio, picking blackberries in Mexico and singing songs to a toddler. That’s what genuine friendship looks like after a certain age.
The golf story is the one that captures the dynamic perfectly. They were kicked off a course in Mexico for taking three hours to play three holes. Not for noise or misbehavior. Just for being spectacularly, leisurely, hilariously bad at golf and completely unbothered about it. Two of the most famous men in American media, removed from a golf course in Mexico for playing too slowly. If you had to design a perfect Howard-and-Jimmy story, you could not do better than that.
III
September 2025 — When It Mattered Most
On September 22, 2025, ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! — the result of pressure from the FCC chairman following comments Kimmel made about Charlie Kirk’s passing and Trump’s reaction to it. It was, by any reasonable measure, an act of corporate capitulation to political pressure. And Howard Stern was furious.
He went on air the same day and did not hedge. He called the suspension “horrible” and “outrageous.” He said: “When the government says, ‘I’m not pleased with you, so we’re going to orchestrate a way to silence you,’ it’s the wrong direction for our country.” Then he announced he was canceling his Disney+ subscription to boycott ABC’s parent company. Robin Quivers said she would do the same. Howard revealed he had already called Kimmel to check on him personally.
By the end of that same day, ABC announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would return to air. Howard’s response on the September 23rd episode:
“Well, looks like I solved another problem.”
Then, to Robin: “What should we fix today, Robin? Global warming? I’m on a roll.”— Howard Stern, The Howard Stern Show, September 23, 2025
A news clip played on the show described Howard’s Disney+ cancellation announcement as a “pivotal” moment in the Kimmel saga. Howard played the clip, let it sit for a beat, and said: “All I had to do was mention I was canceling my subscription.” The delivery was perfect. The pride was real. And when Kimmel returned to air, he thanked Howard — naming him as one of his heroes, publicly, in front of the country.
IV
What This Friendship Actually Says About Howard Stern in 2025
The critics who say Howard has “gone soft” or “sold out” or “lost the edge” miss something important that the Kimmel friendship illustrates. Howard Stern has not stopped caring about the things he cared about. He has not become comfortable with institutional power or political suppression. When his best friend was suspended from television in what he believed was a politically motivated act, he didn’t stay quiet and paint watercolors. He went on air the same day and came out swinging.
The difference between old Howard and current Howard is not the absence of convictions. It’s the presence of relationships. He has people now — real ones, people he picks blackberries with and calls when they’re in trouble — and when those people need defending, the old Howard is right there, fully operational.
Jimmy Kimmel called Howard and Letterman his heroes when he returned to air after the suspension. He thanked them by name, in front of the country. Howard — who famously struggles to accept praise and deflects compliments with jokes — probably watched from his house, in bed before 8 PM, and felt something he wouldn’t fully admit to feeling. That’s the most Howard Stern thing about all of it. He built one of the great friendships in American show business and still can’t quite believe it’s real.
