“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Sets Itself Apart with MAC Rig

Those who know late night television in the US know “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Despite the dominance of Jay Leno and David Letterman on the late night dial, Jimmy Kimmel has established himself as a next generation late night TV host. Produced by Jackhole Productions in association with ABC Studios, the hour long program has been airing on ABC since 2003.

“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is broadcast from the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood and often stages live performances from its Pontiac Garage outdoor stage. Currently in its fifth season, a new lighting package that includes Martin MAC moving heads was installed in March of this year.

“Jimmy Kimmel Live’s” Lighting Designer is Christian Hibbard (VX Inc. in Los Angeles). “The show prides itself on the quality of the performances,” Christian says. “The use of the Martin product and the [LED] gives us a look that is different than any other late night show.

“On most late night shows it feels like the band is performing on a sound stage. But it’s important to us that when a band comes on our show we give them and the fans the same experience as going to, or performing at, a live concert.”
The new lighting package includes Martin MAC 700 Profiles™, MAC 2000 Washes™ and Martin’s tungsten wash light, the MAC TW1™.
“I chose the MAC TW1 because I wanted to give the Pontiac Garage a more modern look that would set it apart from other late night shows,” says Christian. “I wanted an incandescent wash fixture that was bright and had the ability to strobe. I was also impressed with the color pallet and the beam shaping capabilities.” The TW1s are placed as back light for the band and as background lighting for hand held cameras.

The MAC TW1 is a silent, 1200 W tungsten wash light used in theatres, TV studios and increasingly on touring shows worldwide. It features a clean and even soft-edged beam, motorized zoom, rich CMY color mixing and can be run from either a built-in dimmer or external dimmer.

“I also like to have an arc hard edge working along side a tungsten wash fixture and I’m a big fan of the MAC 700 Profile,” Christian states. “The color mixing and effects wheel separate it from my other hard edge choices in that size fixture.” Lighting supply is from PRG.

PRG account rep: Curry Grant
PRG Project Coordinator: Ron Crume
Gaffer: Scott Marsdon

Lighting equipment:
22 x Martin MAC 700 Profile™
26 x Martin MAC 2000 Wash™
20 x Martin MAC TW1™