The late-night race to innovate is on. A couple of weeks ago we wrote about Conan O’Briens entirely crowsourced episode “Occupy Conan” set to air on Janaury 31st. This past Thursday night, the rivalry between Jimmy Kimmel and Matt Damon was taken to the next level when Damon kidnapped Kimmel and hijacked his show. Fans of the show know that it has been a running joke for years that Kimmel bumps Damon at the end of episodes saying that they’re out of time. Here’s how Damon got revenge and how how social TV reacted.
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Damon exacted revenge by taking over the show, renaming it “Jimmy Kimmel Sucks,” and getting a number of A-listers to come. The episode was a tremendous success on all fronts. It generated more tweets than any other episodes of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on record, up more than 230% above average (according to SocialGuide), and the show’s YouTube channel generated over 550,000 video views in the hours immediately following the episode.
The episode generated so much buzz that it will re-air in primetime on Tuesday night at 10:00pm. Kimmel has certainly proven that he’s a legitimate threat to Leno, Letterman, and Conan in the crowded 11-12:30 timeslot, so it is no small matter that he (or Damon, more accurately) ranked number one among his competitors on Thursday night in the key Households and Adults 18-49 demographics.