The late-night host is everywhere these days, from interviewing each week’s “Dancing with the Stars” castoff to spawning viral videos with girlfriend Sarah Silverman to filling in for Regis Philbin on “Live! With Regis and Kelly.”

Now Kimmel is expanding into primetime.

Starting tonight, the comic will host a series of specials airing before the NBA finals. Kimmel’s show will air at 8 p.m., followed at 8:30 p.m. by a pregame show and then the actual game at 9.

“Jimmy Kimmel Live: Game Night” will feature a blend of guest athletes, including Magic Johnson and David Beckham, and humor bits, such as Kimmel facing off with this year’s national spelling bee winner, Sameer Mirsha.

Mostly it’s a showcase for Kimmel, who has roots in sports radio and riled the city of Detroit several years ago after joking about riots in the city following the Pistons’ NBA championship.

It’s a no-risk strategy for ABC. With ratings for the finals expected to rise this year because of the much-anticipated Los Angeles Lakers-Boston Celtics matchup, the network knew the pre-finals slot was too valuable to waste on reruns.

But it also has proven a difficult spot to launch a new series. Last year ABC premiered the sports-themed reality show “Fast Cars and Superstars” in the pre-finals slot, and it bombed badly.

Viewers were uninterested in non-NBA programming. “Superstars’” premiere averaged a 1.2 in adults 18-49, with the NBA pregame jumping 42 percent in the next half-hour, and ratings for the car show plummeted in the following days.

Even if ratings are equally bad for “Game Night,” ABC won’t lose much. The show is cheap to produce, and more importantly, it gives more exposure to Kimmel, who’s considered a rising star.

Before the writers’ strike sent the late-night shows into repeats in November, Kimmel’s was the only program showing year-to-year improvement. Though its ratings cooled a bit when originals started up in January, “Kimmel” achieved the year’s most-talked-about bit in late-night with Silverman’s video “I’m F***ing Matt Damon” and Kimmel’s star-studded response, “I’m F***ing Ben Affleck.” Both became massive YouTube hits.

For the recently concluded 2007-’08 season, “Kimmel,” which starts at 12:05 a.m., beat CBS’s “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” in total viewers for the first time, albeit just barely, averaging 1.727 million to the latter’s 1.725 million.

Kimmel was 184,000 behind late-late night leader Conan O’Brien on NBC, the closest margin since the ABC show launched five years ago.

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Meanwhile, in late-night ratings for the week ended May 25, NBC’s “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” was first for the week, averaging 5.0 million total viewers and a 1.4 rating among adults 18-49. ABC’s “Nightline” had 3.6 million viewers and a 1.1 rating in the demo, up from its usual No. 3 slot, with CBS’s “The Late Show with David Letterman” bringing in 3.4 million viewers and a 1.0 18-49 rating. In late-late night, NBC’s “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” had 2.0 million total viewers and a 0.8 in 18-49s, with ABC’s “Kimmel” at 1.9 million viewers and a 0.7, CBS’s “Ferguson” at 1.6 million viewers and a 0.5, and NBC’s “Last Call with Carson Daly” bringing in 1.2 million viewers and a 0.5 among 18-49s.

In other dayparts, NBC’s “Meet the Press” finished first among the Sunday morning shows in total viewers with 3.57 million tuning in, as well as among viewers 25-54 with a 1.0 rating. ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” was second in viewers with 2.17 million, and tied for second among 25-54s with a 0.6, with CBS’s “Face the Nation” pulling 2.0 million viewers and a 0.6 among 25-54s. “Fox News Sunday” averaged 1.12 million viewers and a 0.5 rating among 25-54s.
 
In morning shows, NBC’s “Today” was first with 5.6 million total viewers and a 4.3 household rating and 15 share, followed by ABC’s “Good Morning America” with 4.7 million viewers and a 3.6/13. CBS’s “Early Show” was third with 2.6 million total viewers and a 2.0/7.
 
CBS had the largest full daytime audience during the week, averaging 3.72 million viewers, but was third among women 18-49 with a 1.2 rating. NBC had the second-largest audience, averaging 2.88 million viewers, but was first among women 18-49 with a 1.5 rating. ABC had a full daytime audience of 2.87 million and was second among women 18-49 with a 1.4 rating.
 
In evening network news for the week ended June 1, ABC’s “World News with Charles Gibson” was first among total viewers, averaging 7.66 million, but second among 25-54s with a 1.8 average rating. NBC’s “Nightly News with Brian Williams” was second in viewers, averaging 7.65 million, and first among 25-54s with a 1.9 rating, while CBS’s “Evening News with Katie Couric” was third for the week with 5.54 million total viewers and a 1.3 25-54 rating.