Watch Jimmy Kimmel’s First Musical Guest Coldplay Return For The Show’s 20th Anniversary Episode
The first episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! aired Jan. 26, 2003. Last night, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of that broadcast, Kimmel brought back the exact same lineup of guests: George Clooney, Snoop Dogg (who was acting as Kimmel’s co-host for the first week), and musical guest Coldplay, who are suddenly all over TV again. There were several moments of split-screen that provided a pretty fun time capsule effect — Snoop looks exactly the same, Clooney does not — and everyone did a lot of reminiscing, as you’d expect on an anniversary show. Kimmel compared Snoop’s rider from 20 years ago to his current rider, Clooney brought out some liquor to share with everyone onstage, and Coldplay did Coldplay things.
Specifically, Chris Martin came out first for a brief interview and pretended Coldplay hadn’t been able to get any music together on short notice. He then handed Kimmel a music box that, when wound up, played the opening riff from “Clocks,” the song Coldplay performed outside the Kodak Theatre on Kimmel’s first show. This quickly unfolded into an elaborate run through the same song involving a large string ensemble, a choir, spliced-in video of the original “Clocks” performance, and finally an outdoor finale with the full band plus Kimmel on his clarinet, with fireworks exploding in the background. Alas, there was no time left for Matt Damon.
Watch it all below.