Jimmy Kimmel Live From Austin

Jimmy Kimmel Live will bring Austin to U.S. living rooms during SXSW 2014

Sorry, Matt Damon, but we’re gonna be running out of time for you in Austin this spring. Jimmy Kimmel's nationally televised talk show will be produced in Austin during South by Southwest. Five Jimmy Kimmel Live shows will be taped at the Long Center March 10-14, to be aired later each night. The music portion of SXSW takes place March 11-16.

This is the first time JKL has done a remote since moving to the 10:35 pm time slot. Kimmel and crew traveled to Detroit in 2006 to do shows tied in with the Super Bowl. Jimmy Kimmel Live also returned to the host’s hometown of Brooklyn in November 2012.

As the edgiest of the late-night talk shows, Jimmy Kimmel Live is a natural to tap into the craziness of SXSW.

Kimmel, 46, first had a presence at SXSW in 2011 and last year ramped up his profile by co-hosting Rachael Ray’s annual “Feedback” party at Stubb’s.

“Austin is one of my favorite cities, and there is no place more fun than SXSW,” Kimmel said in a release. ” I can’t wait for March 10. I’ll be the guy covered in BBQ sauce.”

As the edgiest of the late-night talk shows — and much more in tune with social media (e.g., the viral twerking fire video that the Kimmelettes staged) — JKL is a natural to tap into the craziness of SXSW.

Such proven bits as “Lie Witness News,” in which Kimmel staffers receive raves from festgoers about bands that don’t exist, should work well on the clueless who crawl streets of Austin in mid-March. And let’s hear SXSW buzz bands read “Mean Tweets” about themselves.

If Kimmel writers want to adapt more bits for SXSW, they could hold a YouTube challenge called “Hey, Jimmy Kimmel, I told my friends I lost their Fader Fort passes,” with the pranksters filming the hissy hipster fits to follow.

Because the once-humble fest has become a media-frenzy stop for superstars (Prince, Justin Timberlake, Depeche Mode and more last year), the Kimmel show will have amazing access to live music while in Austin. The audience energy at SXSW, which started in 1987 as a sparsely attended music business conference, is usually intense, which would play well on TV.

We’re pretty sure Miley Cyrus and her tongue are coming to SXSW, as she has an open March 14 date between shows in San Antonio and Houston. And that’s just the tip of the hypeberg. Everyone knows Aspen-on-the-Range is where the party’s at in March. And someone told Sean “P. Diddy” Combs.

But the majority of the country has never heard of SXSW. Having Jimmy Kimmel Live in Austin will bring the city to living rooms all over the United States and give the fest exposure to middle America like nothing before. And it could be the start of a yearly tradition, who knows?

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A version of this story originally appeared on MichaelCocoran.net.

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Local Makes Good

Lewisville resident Ashley Chan hitting it big on Jeopardy

Photo by Alex Bentley

Lewisville resident Ashley Chan at the start of her fourth victory in Jeopardy.

Dallas-Fort Worth can lay claim to a rising Jeopardy! champion: Ashley Mungiguerra Chan, a resident of Lewisville, is now on a four-day winning streak after besting her competition on Tuesday, December 17.

Chan, who works in public relations, began her run-up to champion status on December 12, taking down the previous three-day champion with ease, finishing with a runaway total of $15,600.

Since then, she has shown to have a broad range of knowledge, as well as the buzzer skills, to keep her on top.

Chan is a graduate of Hofstra University in 2015 and a publicist at Dala Communications in Dallas. In an interview with her alma mater, she shared some of the strategies that have helped her stay on top now for four days in a row.

“I told a lot of people before I went on Jeopardy!, ‘Oh, I feel like I have a leg up on other contestants because I’ve been on TV before and hosted programs,'” she said. “I also did debate in high school. So, being on stage in front of people didn’t make me nervous.”

“Having experience with hands-on news work was really helpful for me because I was able to focus on gameplay and not worry if my mic was messing up, if I was looking in the wrong direction, or if my outfit was OK,” she said.

She applied to be on the show more than once, and was eventually accepted by the show's producers in 2024. Her episodes were filmed in October.

She brushed up by listening to the show's podcasts and said she was grateful they got to rehearse the process of hitting the buzzer, since that was one of the most rattling aspects of the show. Hit it too soon, and you're temporarily frozen out.

"It is so much more difficult than it looks on TV," she said.

Knowing how much to risk during Final Jeopardy was also a key strategy that helped her in her second game on December 13, when a smart wager allowed her to retain her title despite not knowing the answer.

The game on December 17 was her closest yet, with all three contestants having amassed more than $10,000 heading into Final Jeopardy, a rare scenario for the game.

The category was "Fictional Characters." The clue: "Dressed in white in her first scene, this play character says her name means 'white woods.'"

Chan's correct response of "Who is Blanche DuBois?," along with a little lucky wagering, enabled her to win by a mere $300. Her four-day total winnings now stand at $67,400.

Root for her on December 18 on CBS TV at 6 pm, when she'll compete once again. Can she win a fifth time? Whether she does or not, with four wins under her belt, Chan is likely to be invited back for Jeopardy's annual Tournament of Champions, set to air in January 2026.

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