Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers are celebrating Jimmy Kimmel Live! returning to the air after ABC lifted the show’s suspension.
The Late Show host said in a teaser for his show’s Monday night opening monologue, “We do, like, 160 of these a year or something and when I have the chance, it’s always nice to start the show with some good news.”
“Just a few hours before we tape this broadcast, we got word that our long national late nightmare is over, because Disney announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return to air on ABC tomorrow, Tuesday night,” Colbert added, followed by cheers from him and his live audience.
“Wonderful news from my dear friend Jimmy and his amazing staff. You know, I’m so happy for them. Plus, now that Jimmy’s not being canceled, I get to enjoy this again,” he said, showing off his Emmy Award again.
“Once more, I am the only martyr in late nights. Wait, unless CBS, you wanna announce anything?” Colbert quipped in reference to the network canceling his late night show in July.
Meyers, the host of Late Night, also said on his show, “Minutes before we started taping, we got word that our friend Jimmy Kimmel will be back on the air,” as his audience erupted in cheers.
“A massive national backlash to Trump’s crackdown on free speech, even among conservatives. I haven’t seen a poll yet, but I think if you asked Americans if the president should be dictating what TV hosts can and can’t say, you’d get about 3 percent positive and…” Meyers continued before cutting to a clip of Trump saying, “97 percent negative.”
ABC parent The Walt Disney Co. announced early Monday that Kimmel’s show would be returning to broadcast after its brief suspension ignited a national debate over free speech and the Trump administration’s pressure tactics.
“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” the company wrote in a statement. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
Jimmy Kimmel Live! was initially suspended after a comment the host made during his Sept. 15 episode, which he suggested Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin was a MAGA conservative, caused a stir online. FCC chair Brendan Carr also threatened ABC’s affiliate licenses over the remark, which led some to preempt Kimmel’s show at the time.
While Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return Tuesday night, Sinclair Broadcast Group shared later on Monday that it will preempt the show, noting that “discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return.”