Jimmy Kimmel is sticking to his vow to help employees who won’t be receiving paychecks during the partial government shutdown, which entered its 21st consecutive day Friday.
Each night of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” this week has featured a new face temporarily filling in on set. A prison guard sat with the stage band as a tambourine player on Monday; a firefighter worked security with comedian Guillermo Rodriguez on Tuesday; a TSA worker helped search guests for weed on Wednesday, and an air traffic controller stood in as the greenroom bartender on Thursday.
“We’re gonna give you a paycheck here from our show. It’s not a full-time job, but hopefully it will hold you over,” Kimmel told his new bartender, Nathan Steinhubel, during Thursday’s episode.
Kimmel isn’t getting picky with qualifications for his temporary hires. As long as they’re one of the nearly 800,000 federal workers going without paychecks during what’s now tied for second-longest government shutdown in the nation’s history, they’re eligible for the late-night gig.
“Tonight, and every night until the shutdown is over, we’re gonna put a federal employee to work here at the show,” Kimmel said during Monday night’s episode, kicking off his four-night run with extra stagehands.
The partial shutdown began on Dec. 22 after the president and Congress failed to agree on funding for Trump’s $5 billion border wall. It impacts the Departments of Homeland Security, Transportation, and several other agencies.
Kimmel’s first guest, John Kostelnik, a law enforcement prison guard at the Federal Correctional Complex in California, admitted he “absolutely” objects to “being used as a pawn in this fight over the wall.”
It wasn’t immediately clear what compensation Kimmel would be offering his guest workers.
