Shonda Rhimes on the one 'Scandal' storyline they'll never do

"Jimmy Kimmel Live" dedicated an entire episode to celebrating "Scandal" -- and the woman behind it all, Shonda Rhimes, spilled on the one storyline the hit show will never touch.

"We would not do alien abductions. There, I mean, there are sometimes we get crazy pitches. But generally, it's the stuff that we find to be the craziest and then we sort of decide like let's find a way to lean in to it always turns out to be true. You know, in the news."

Shonda then went on to talk about the Thorngate idea -- in the third episode of season two, "Scandal" had a weirdly prophetic plot about a top-secret government program that has the ability to spy - literally - on any American citizen for reasons described as "anti-terrorism."

And then a few months later, the real NSA Security scandal happened in real life.

Shonda also talked about the one storyline that caused the most behind-the-scenes tension ... in the writer's room. It was all about Jake's role in the mid-season finale. She told Jimmy, "Half the [writer's] room wanted him to be the vice presidential candidate and half wanted him to be the head of B613, and we fought about it right up until the last minute - so much so that we shot both ways."

Jimmy also grilled Shonda about one of this season's cliffhangers -- will Harrison live or die? The Hollywood Reporter quotes the creator, "You know I can't tell you whether or not he's dead. That call is always the worst call to make. I do it myself. You really have to have the topic sentence ready. The first [thing] you have to say is you're going to die and here's how and I love you,"