Michael B. Jordan named People’s Sexiest Man Alive for 2020

And because it’s 2020, Jordan arrived dressed in a hazmat suit for the unveiling on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Tuesday night. This led to a guessing game to deduce his identity, as fans interrogated him via Zoom with questions about whether he worked in film (yes), had a celebrity sibling or parent (no), had ever been in a relationship with Taylor Swift (“That’s pretty specific, but uh…no”), had more than 5 million Instagram followers (yes) or played Aquaman (no).

Eventually, they narrowed it down. “Are you Michael B. Jordan?” one woman asked. The man in the hazmat suit paused. “How do I answer that?” he asked Kimmel.

When all was revealed, he sat down with Kimmel for an interview; the late-night hosted noted that he “was bestowed with the most prestigious honor available to humankind … whether President Trump accepts his victory or not.”

Jordan revealed he learned the news when his publicist and manager called when he was in the car with a friend — and of course, his friend immediately started to make fun of him. “Sexiest Man, that’s cool to everybody else,” Jordan said. “But anybody who really knows you, that’s just another way they can give jabs to you.”

Kimmel then aired a clip from Jordan’s appearance on his show in January, before the pandemic shut everything down and he actually had a studio audience. At the time, Kimmel told him that whenever he teased Jordan as a guest, the women in the crowd lost their minds. “I think you might be frontrunner for Sexiest Man Alive this year,” Kimmel predicted.

So naturally Kimmel had to brag about this. “I feel like I put it out in the universe and the universe said yes, that is correct, he is the sexiest man,” he said. “It’s my ESP, Extra Sexiest Perception. It comes in very handy … this is the only time I’ve used it, but it really worked.”

Then Kimmel held up a copy of the magazine and pointed out that in “Sexy at Every Age” feature, he was named the sexiest man at 53 — and NBA legend Michael Jordan was the winner for age 57. Kimmel wondered if being featured as the main Sexiest Man — while the other Michael Jordan only got a tiny photo — might even be the more rewarding part of the honor.

“I’ll take that,” Jordan said, laughing. “I’m not going to have too many of those over MJ, so I’m gonna take that one.”

Previous Sexiest Man Alive winners:

1988: John F. Kennedy Jr.

1993: Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford (sexiest couple)

1994: No one — possible lack of sexiness that year

1999: Richard Gere (again)

2005: Matthew McConaughey

2006: George Clooney (again)

2009: Johnny Depp (again)