Coronavirus: Comedian Jim Gaffigan raced to get home from South America before borders closed

Jim Gaffigan is entertaining followers — and his kids — nightly by streaming Dinner with the Gaffigans, but the comedian almost didn't make it home amid the coronavirus pandemic. In an interview with BUILD Series, Gaffigan said he was in South America when the crisis began to escalate.

"As we all know, this was going down hour to hour, right? So one day, this would happen and another hour would pass, and I was in Bogotá, Columbia starting my Latin America tour," he shared. "I was about to go to the theater and my manager called me, 'Argentina closed their borders, so you have to decide when you're coming home.' So, it was one of those things when I was traveling back, I was very aware people were going to be separated from their families or their friends."

Luckily, Gaffigan made it back to his wife and their five kids. The Jim Eats The World creator's life has now transformed into a non-stop routine of cooking.

"I immediately came back and was just consuming news like everybody else and then I saw this Dinner with the Gaffigans as kind of an opportunity to break from the constant news consumption that we all participate in, and just also selfishly, to provide my kids some normalcy," he explained of the concept. "Not that being part of a reality show dinner is a reality, but it gives us an appointment every night."

The stand-up comedian added, "And it gives us something where they know it's streamed and it's interactive, people can ask questions of my kids. It's something that can help people, but can also help my children. It also makes sure we have dinner at 6, you know, trying to keep some normalcy as everyone can tell you is pretty difficult when you don't leave the house."

Watch: COVID-19 has turned Jim Gaffigan's home into a diner:

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