Jimmy Kimmel reached across the aisle during Disney’s Upfront presentation in NYC on Tuesday (May 13) as he urged the advertisers in attendance to support CBS’ 60 Minutes.
The late-night host took to the stage at Tuesday’s event to share jokes and talk about the slate of programming on ABC and other Disney-owned properties. However, he ended his monologue by sharing support for 60 Minutes, a show belonging to rival network CBS.
“I know it’s not part of our multi-platform, but support 60 Minutes. They deserve it,” Kimmel told the audience, per The Wrap, who reported that the mention of 60 Minutes was in Kimmel’s script and not ad-libbed.
He continued, “You have the power because you have the money. Support journalism. It’s important, and it doesn’t work without you.”
Kimmel’s comments come as President Donald Trump is suing CBS News for what he claims was biased reporting on 60 Minutes; specifically an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, which Trump alleges was edited in a way to mislead voters in the 2024 presidential election.
Earlier this month, 60 Minutes host Scott Pelley told viewers live on air that the show’s longtime producer, Bill Owens, chose to depart after Paramount bosses supposedly asked the program to hold off on stories criticizing Trump.
Paramount Global, CBS’ parent company, is hoping to merge with Skydance Media, a deal that reportedly requires the green light from federal regulators under the Trump administration.
Elsewhere in Kimmel’s upfront monologue, he poked fun at Peyton Manning and Eli Manning, who had performed a musical number earlier in the day.
“I do wanna thank the Manning brothers for finally answering the question, ‘What if two jars of mayonnaise could sing?’” Kimmel quipped. “The answer is: they can’t, and they shouldn’t. That was worse than what the Menendez brothers did.”
According to Entertainment Weekly, the audience loudly groaned at Kimmel’s joking comparing the Manning brothers to convicted murderers Lyle and Erik Menendez. “Too soon or too late?” he asked in response to the reaction.
The Jimmy Kimmel Live! host also took shots at rival networks, joking about NBC’s upcoming 100th birthday, “It’s finally old enough to watch CBS.”
He also bragged about Disney having 164 million active users per month across Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, noting that’s “more than twice the number Netflix has… I don’t have a joke for that. I just want you know we finally beat those motherf****** at something!”
Kimmel also mentioned CBS’ hit comedy Ghosts, joking, “Which is also what most of their viewers will be soon,” and touched on Fox’s upcoming Memory of a Killer, a show about a hitman with Alzheimer’s.
“That is a dumb idea, but at least CBS and Fox are making shows,” the comedian said before mocking his own network. “ABC, we ordered one new show, and it’s a spinoff of an old show, which really begs the question, what are we doing here? We risked our lives flying into Newark for this.”
He added,” If you went to a restaurant, and the waiter said, ‘Our special tonight is last year’s fish,’ would you eat it? No, you would not. Our fish is not fresh.”
However, he did praise on particular ABC show, saying, “You know what? We do have Season grandmotherf****** 2 of The Golden Bachelor. Say what you will about ABC, we are still the only network where you can see Pop-Pop get a squeezer in a hot tub.”