Actor Matt Damon, 55, crashed the Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” wearing a Boston Red Sox cap and posing as a heckler in the audience, and security escorted him out.
Host Jimmy Kimmel, 58, was only a few lines into his monologue on the opening night of the show’s Brooklyn run. The show had been brought east for a week of broadcasts in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Kimmel set up the bit with the baseball postseason, which was starting with a three-game wildcard series between the Yankees and the Red Sox, beginning in the Bronx. “Tomorrow the baseball postseason begins with a three-game wildcard series between the bitterest of all rivals, the [New York] Yankees and the [Boston] Red Sox,” Kimmel said.
Damon interrupted from his audience seat, cheering for his home team. “Go Sox! Go Sox!” he shouted.
“You, the loser in the Red Sox cap, what is your name?” Kimmel asked.
“You know my name,” Damon answered.
“I have no idea what your name is and honestly, I don’t care, because it’s time for the ceremonial throwing out of the first Red Sox fan,” Kimmel said, then added, “Security, please remove this ‘Masshole’ from the theater.”
Mom and Sister Join In
Damon tried a defense. “Wait a minute, I’m not even trying to get on the show. I’m just here with family,” he said.
“Security — wait, what family are you here with?” Kimmel asked.
“I’m here with your mom,” Damon replied, then added, “I’m also here with your sister.”
Joan Kimmel, the host’s mother, stood up beside Damon. Jill Kimmel, the host’s sister, rose from the next seat.
“My mother and my sister? Get him out of here right now!” Kimmel said.
Security ushered Damon out of the auditorium, and Joan and Jill Kimmel followed him up the aisle. “You don’t bring my mother and my sister with you,” Kimmel shouted from the stage as Damon was removed.
Damon fired back on his way out: “Listen, I’ll tell you what. You can keep me off the show; you can’t keep me out of your mom!”
Kimmel then turned back to the crowd. “You should all probably get tested for HPV,” he told them.
Two Decades of Mock Rivalry
The two men have spent two decades maintaining a mock rivalry on the air, and Damon chose baseball as his weapon. The bit dates to 2005, when Kimmel began closing episodes with an apology to a guest who had never been booked in the first place: “Apologies to Matt Damon, but we ran out of time.”
Damon finally turned up as a guest in September 2006. Kimmel cut him off and ended the show, which kept the feud alive rather than settling it.
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” launched in 2003 on ABC. Kimmel has said the early days of the show were “murderously difficult.” He recalled that most publicists were wary of him early on and that he leaned on a small circle of famous friends to fill the guest chair.
A Truce That Fell Apart
In March 2023, the two men attempted peace in a detente brokered by actor Ben Affleck, Damon’s closest friend. Damon and Affleck met as kids growing up in Cambridge, Mass. The truce fell apart on air that same night.
While hosting the 2024 Oscars, Kimmel played a clip of Messi, the dog from “Anatomy of a Fall,” urinating on Damon’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — and the feud was back on. Damon, a father of four, has never needed an invitation to participate.
Awards Stages and Real Rivals
Kimmel has hosted the Primetime Emmy Awards three times, in 2012, 2016 and 2020, and he hosted the 2012 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. At the 68th Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, hosted by Kimmel, “The People v. O.J. Simpson” dominated the night.
Kimmel told IndieWire in 2016 that late-night hosts chase the same bookings and little else, describing his professional rivalries in far milder terms than his on-air persona suggests.
The series Kimmel teed up in his monologue did not go Damon’s way. The Yankees took Game 1 of the series 9-0 on Tuesday, Sept. 29, leaving the Red Sox one loss from elimination.