Jimmy Kimmel Live! is back on ABC following a six-day suspension. The talk show returned on Tuesday, September 23, after it was indefinitely suspended by the network over comments host Jimmy Kimmel made about Charlie Kirk.
Cities with ABC affiliate stations owned by Nexstar and Sinclair will continue to see the late-night show preempted for now, but everyone else across the country was seated as Kimmel returned with his first monologue in nearly a week.
Scroll down for live updates from Kimmel’s return to late-night television, and keep refreshing since we’ll be updating throughout the episode.
The show began with clips from various other media outlets discussing how highly-anticipated this show is, then cut to Kimmel and Guillermo dressed in silly costumes in their green room (they eventually decided they needed to change). Kimmel entered the stage to a massive round of applause and the crowd chanting his name before he began his monologue.
“I’m happy to be here tonight with you,” he said, after making a joke about preempting Celebrity Family Feud to be on the air. “I’m not sure who had a weirder 48 hours, me or the CEO of Tylenol. It’s been overwhelming. I’ve heard from a lot of people over the last six days. I’ve heard from all the people in the world over the last six days. Everyone I’ve ever met have reached out 10 or 11 times. The guy who fired me from my first radio job in Seattle, where we are not airing tonight, by the way, his name is Larry. In 1989 Larry tried to force me to do a bit called Jokes for Donuts, where people would call in and tell jokes for donuts, and I refused to do it and eventually Larry fired me and I had to move back in with my parents. Even he checked in. Thank you, Larry.”
He gave a special shout-out to his fellow talksshow hosts, including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart, Jay Leno, and many others, such as Howard Stern and Jay Leno. He noted that even late-night hosts from other countries reached out. “This country has become so authoritarian that even the Germans are like, ‘Come here!’”
Of course, he also gave a special message to his viewers who made sure their “voices were heard so mine could be heard.” Especially, though, he mentioned those who don’t share his beliefs, but stood up for his right to still be on the air, including Candace Owens and Ted Cruz. “I don’t think I’ve ever said this before, but Ted Cruz is right,” Kimmel noted. “If Ted Cruz can’t speak freely, then he can’t cast spells on the Smurfs. Even though I don’t agree with many of those people on most subjects, some of the things they say make me want to throw up, it takes courage for them to speak out against this administration, and they did and they deserve credit for it. Telling your followers that your government cannot be allowed to control what we do.”
Kimmel then got emotional as he said, “You understand it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don’t think there’s anything funny about it. I posted a message on Instagram on the day he was killed asking compassion for his family, and I meant it. I still do. Nor did I mean to blame any specific group for the actions of a aspecific individual. That was actually the opposite of the point I was trying to make. For those who think I did point a finger, I get why you’re upset. If the situation were reversed, there’s a good chance I would’ve felt the same way.”
He continued, “I don’t think the murderer who shot Charlie Kirk represents anyone. This is a sick person who thinks violence is a solution, and it isn’t ever. Also, selfishly, I am a person who get a lot of threats. I get many ugly and scary threats against my life, my wife, my kids, my coworkers, because of what I choose to say. And I know those threats don’t come from the people on the right who I know and love. And I don’t want to make this about me. This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”
Kimmel then spoke candidly about how it’s “not legal” and “un-American” to force affiliates to take his show off the air. He specifically referenced FCC chair Brendan Carr’s comments about wanting to pull his show. “Brendan Carr is the most embarrassing car Republicans have embraced since this one,” he said, as a photo of a Tesla Cybertruck spray painted with Trump’s name showed on the screen.
Kimmel also pointed to past comments Carr made about free speech and shared an old clip of Donald Trump talking about how important it is for there to be free speech in this country. “That was also in 2022. How did that guy turn into this guy?” he continued, before showing a recent clip of Trump calling him a “wack job” and claiming he got “no ratings” for his show. Kimmel then smirked and added, “Well, I do tonight!”
“He did his best to cancel me. Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show,” Kimmel joked. “That backfired bigly. He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now.”
He then joked, “Disney has asked me to read the following statement and I have agreed to do it. Here we go: To reactivate your Disney+ and Hulu account, open the Disney+ app on your smart TV or connected device.” The audience cracked up.
Kimmel made sure to thank Disney for bringing him back on the air, even though they “didn’t have to,” he noted. “I was not happy when they pulled me off the air,” he said. “I did not agree with that decision and I told them that. We talked it through and in the end, even though they didn’t have to, they really didn’t have to, this is a giant company, we have short attention spans, and I am a tiny part of the Disney corporation, but they welcomed me back on the air, and I thank them for that.”
He also told his viewers that they should support Seth Meyers, Fallon, and any other late-night hosts who Trump has threatened to pull off the air.
Kimmel went on to list a lot of things that “most Americans support” and urged viewers to “stop letting politicians tell us what they want and tell them what we want.”
To conclude his monologue, Kimmel referenced Kirk’s widow Erika Kirk’s remarks at his funeral. “Erika Kirk forgave the man who shot her husband. That is an example we should follow,” Kimmel insisted. “If you believe in the teachings of Jesus as I do, there it was. That’s it. A selfless act of grace, forgiveness from a grieving widow, it touched me deeply. If there’s anything we should take from this tragedy to carry forward, I hope it can be that, and not this.”
Kimmel joked that Guillermo offered to sell his Labubus to raise money for him when they were out of a job. Guillermo then took the floor to praise Kimmel as a “great man and a great father.” He also told his boss, “I love you and I stand with you all the way, brother.”
More to come …
Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Weeknights, 11:35 p.m. ET, ABC