Jimmy Kimmel returns to Brooklyn this week
NEW YORK (WABC) -- The home of Jimmy Kimmel Live may be in Hollywood, but the host remains just as close to his relatives here in the city, which makes his annual trip to Brooklyn extra special.
Planning takes months, and Kimmel makes trips in advance to shoot segments all over the city. We caught up with him and some of New York's Bravest at a firehouse in Harlem.
Kimmel also brought Guillermo to greet the guys from Engine 53/Ladder 43.
"Always thought it would be a fun job to be a firefighter, and I know they do great things," Kimmel joked. "They do serious things, but the part that really appeals to me is, well, napping on the job, number one. Eating, cooking with the rest of the guys."
The plan was for the two of them to suit up with the guys and cook for the cameras, but that's when real life intervened and a loud horn called the firefighters to action. They ran to their trucks, and off they went.
"Someone was stuck in the elevator on the 20th floor of an apartment building," Lt. William Servedio said. "And we had to get them out."
So Hollywood was put on hold, and Kimmel and company had to wait -- but no harm done, and filming soon resumed.
"To see a guy you see on TV all the time walking through the firehouse door, it's pretty awesome," firefighter Eddie Guadalupe said.
The grin on Jimmy's face told all of us the feeling was definitely mutual, but the segment was just one part of a tradition that began half a dozen years ago after Superstorm Sandy.
The show went on at The Brooklyn Academy of Music then, and will again starting Monday.
"The energy that we get from the audience makes it much more fun than doing the show in LA," Kimmel said.
Kimmel left Brooklyn at the age of 9, but relatives of his still live there.
"They get such a kick out of this," he said. "I mean, we never imagined. I never imagined I'd be on television. We didn't even have a television at my house in Brooklyn for two and a half years. It broke, and we didn't have the money to get it fixed or get a new one."
It's just a few short miles from his boyhood home in Mill Basin to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, but it's been an incredible journey for him.
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