Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show on ABC quietly slipped into HD mode several nights ago without much pre-show fanfare, although the event itself was duly noted on the broadcast itself.
In fact, it may have been one of the few network programs to actually show viewers the side-by-side differences between SD and, in this case, 720p. Kimmel, which typically runs on ABC affiliate stations following “Nightline,” gave viewers a heads up that he was about to morph into HD. After the screen went blank for a few seconds, “Kimmel” returned in the physical form of actor-heartthrob John Stamos, who pretended to be Kimmel for a few seconds in HD mode.
Although Kimmel is up against them in exactly the same time frame, fellow late-nighters Jay Leno on NBC and Dave Letterman on CBS transitioned to HD transmissions (both 1080i) a while ago—especially in Leno’s case. His show went HD more than a decade ago.
Read all of HD Notebookhere.
