Who will Emmys host Jimmy Kimmel thank if he wins?

When late-night favorite Jimmy Kimmel takes the stage at Sunday’s Primetime Emmy Awards, it’ll be his second time hosting the ceremony for television’s biggest night. Recalling the first gig in 2012, he’s armed with lessons to make this year’s show the best it can be.

“[They’re] mostly little things you learn about what works and how to approach the show and how prepared you need to be going in,” he said. “The last time, we shot a big chunk of the show the day of. I decided that was a bad idea and we should never do that again.”

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Just days ahead of this year’s show, Kimmel and crew are hard at work perfecting the lineup of jokes and skits. Though his trusty sidekick Guillermo will probably not be part of it, he said, the laughs that audiences have come to expect from “Jimmy Kimmel Live” will be present. He’s remaining mum, however, on who in attendance might be on the receiving end of his comedic jabs.

“Everybody wants to know what I’m going to do, but [not saying anything] is part of the fun,” he said. “It’s like asking what the end of a movie is before you get into it. It’s just inherently ridiculous.”

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Emmys host Jimmy Kimmel at the 68th Primetime Emmy Red Carpet Rollout and Governors Ball Reveal.

“But congratulations to O.J. [Simpson] and everything he accomplished this year,” he added. The show about the infamous case against the football legend, “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” is nominated for 17 Emmys, having already won two of them when the Emmys for creative arts were handed out this past Sunday.

Kimmel himself is also a nominee for the evening, for best variety talk series. Though he hopes to take home the statue, “we probably won’t,” he said.

“But if we do win, unlike the other nominees, I’m going to give my Emmy to the poor, the people who don’t have Emmys. That’s what separates me apart from the other [nominees].

And the two people he’d thank in his acceptance speech for jump-starting his interest in show business: Laverne and Shirley from the 1980s sitcom.

“Thank you, Laverne, and thank you, Shirley. And Shirley, I love your home medical monitoring commercials.”

The Primetime Emmy Awards will air live on ABC at 4 p.m. Pacific on Sunday.

Watch the Emmys with us on Sunday! We’ll be live blogging all day, all night at latimes.com/emmys.

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