ABC & Jimmy Kimmel Planning 2 New ‘Live in Front of a Studio Audience’ Specials

Woody Harrelson & Marisa Tomei in the 'Live in Front of a Studio Audience' special
ABC/Eric McCandless
Woody Harrelson & Marisa Tomei in the first "Live in Front of a Studio Audience" special

Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was on hand to kick off ABC’s day of panels on Monday at the Television Critics Association (TCA) Summer Press Tour, and he featured in a few announcements from the network.

Most notable for fans of the well-received Live in Front of a Studio Audience specials that aired earlier this year was the announcement that ABC will be producing two more live specials, the first debuting this holiday season (Kimmel told reporters December), and the other premiering in Spring 2020 (Kimmel mentioned May).

Kimmel will once again team up with television icon Norman Lear and executive producers Brent Miller, Will Ferrell and Justin Theroux for these Live in Front of a Studio Audience specials. This year’s specials aired in May, and re-created classic episodes of Lear’s All in the Family and The Jeffersons. No word yet on which shows will be re-created this time, though Kimmel told reporters, “I want [to tell you the shows], but I can’t. There are some loose ends we haven’t tied up yet.”

Along with this announcement, ABC had some other Kimmel-related news. The host will bring his late-night show back to Brooklyn for five original shows starting Monday, October 21. The shows will tape in front of a live studio audience from the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House.

Finally, it was announced that Kimmel will partner with Emmy-winning producer Mark Burnett to executive produce Generation Gap, a new game show coming to ABC. This comedy quiz show groups family members of different generations who must work together to answer questions about each other’s generations.

The show, billed as “fun for the whole family,” features a wide variety of pop-culture trivia and challenges, such as asking an 8-year-old to finish the famous catchphrase, “Go ahead. Make my BLANK!” Additional details surrounding production and airdates, as well as a host, to be announced at a later date