EXCLUSIVE: Howard Stern Slams Jimmy Kimmel's Friendship With Jimmy Fallon
Howard Stern criticizes Jimmy Kimmel's close friendship with fellow late-night host Jimmy Fallon.
Oct. 27 2026, Published 6:00 a.m. ET
Late-night TV is a ratings battlefield – and Howard Stern is sticking his nose in it, Breaking Celebrity News can reveal.
The self-proclaimed King of All Media is blasting two television night owls for fostering a "fake friendship."
Howard Stern Questions Jimmy Kimmel's Friendship With Jimmy Fallon
Howard Stern questioned Jimmy Kimmel's friendship with Jimmy Fallon on his radio show.
Stern insists he sniffed out the real-real after recently hobnobbing with both ABC's Jimmy Kimmel and NBC's Jimmy Fallon.
"I wish you would just come clean – you don't enjoy hanging around with Jimmy Fallon," Stern told Kimmel on his SiriusXM radio show.
"And watching it is too f---ing funny."
Kimmel – who has hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live! since 2003, while Fallon took over The Tonight Show desk from Jay Leno in February 2014 – struggled to set the record straight.
"I don't know how I defend myself in this, but I'm going to attempt to," he said.
"First of all, I cannot imagine anyone not having fun hanging around with Jimmy Fallon, because Jimmy Fallon, as you know, is a lot of fun."
Kimmel, 58, went on to double down on the truth – claiming he couldn't be bothered with a bogus bromance.
Jimmy Kimmel Fires Back at Howard Stern's Fake Friendship Claims
Kimmel defended his friendship with Fallon, rejecting claims it was pretend.
"Do you think I have so much free time in my life ... that I would waste time maintaining a pretend friendship for no reason whatsoever?" he asked.
Despite that, Stern wasn't having it.
"I think you desperately want to prove that, like, 'Oh, we can all get along,'" said Stern, 72.
Kimmel countered, saying: "To who? Who am I proving this to?"
Stern replied: "I don't know – to the world!"
When Fallon, 52, stepped into jut-jawed Leno's shoes on The Tonight Show, Kimmel gushed over him.
Late-Night Rivals Unite Despite Rumors of Feud
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Fallon and Kimmel joined Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers and for 'Strike Force Five' in 2023.
"We're very friendly," he revealed. "I know people expect us to dislike each other, but that will never happen."
All of the late-night rivals have been buddy-buddy recently, even appearing on each other's shows.
What's more, Kimmel and Fallon joined fellow hosts Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers and John Oliver to form the Strike Force Five podcast in 2023.
After Colbert's The Late Show on CBS went off the air in May 2026, the entire group reunited for a final episode of the podcast.
