Jimmy Kimmel returned to his late night show a week after the Trump Administration tried to have him yanked form the airwaves over comments he made related to the death of Charlie Kirk.
ABC pulled Kimmel’s show last Wedneday after Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr called on the ABC network affiliates who air its programming across the country to refuse to air Kimmel. Trump subsequently said Kimmel was canned because he had “no talent and no ratings.”
“Well, I do tonight,” Kimmel said to huge applause, as he returned Tuesday. “He tried his best to cancel me and instead he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly. He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now.”
You can watch the monologue here if you don’t see it above.
Kimmel’s suspension by Disney-owned ABC was widely criticized as a case of the president trying to silence a comedian whose jokes he didn’t like. Freedom of speech advocates on the left and right objected, and many viewers cancelled Disney+ to protest the decision. Creatives including Damon Lindelof, co-creator of ABC’s Lost, said they wouldn’t work with Disney again unless the situation was fixed.
And 400 celebrities including Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep and Jennifer Aniston signed an ACLU open letter saying that efforts to suppress free speech “strike at the heart of what it means to live in a free country.”
ABC pulled Kimmel last week after two companies that own about 60 ABC affiliates, Nextstar and Sinclair, said they would not air his show. Sinclair and Nextstar have said they will keep him off the air even though he’s back on ABC. That means Kimmel will not air in markets including Seattle, Portland, Oregon, Columbus, Ohio, St. Louis, Little Rock, Arkansas, and Birmingham, Alabama.
And Trump threatened to sue.
“I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back,” the president said on Truth Social. “The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there. Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE. He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution. I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.”
What Jimmy Kimmel Said in His Return
Kimmel was suspended after saying in his September 15 monologue that the suspect in Carr’s murder, as the conservative activist was speaking at a Utah college campus, was affiliated with the pro-Trump “MAGA gang.”
Though the suspect, Tyler Robinson, was raised in a conservative household, prosecutors said that, according to his mother, he had “become more political and had started to lean more to the left – becoming more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented,” according to CNN. Kirk had made many anti-gay and anti-trans statements during his life.
In his return Tuesday night, Kimmel clarified that he had not intended to make light of Kirk’s killing.
“I do want to make something clear because it’s important to me as a human: And that is you understand it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” Kimmel said, his voice cracking. “I don’t think there’s anything funny about it … nor was it my intention to blame any specific group.
He also called the suspect “obviously a deeply disturbed individual.”
“I understand that to some that seemed either ill-time or unclear or maybe both and for those who I think I did point a finger, I get why you’re upset,” Kimmel continued.
He also said he didn’t think Kirk’s shooter “represented anyone,” adding, “this was a sick person who believed violence was a solution, and it isn’t — ever.”
Kimmel added that he and his family have gotten death threats over his political jokes. “I know those kinds of threats don’t come from the kind of people on the right who I know and love,” he said.
Kimmel further said that his suspension underlined the importance of “living in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”
He said the efforts to silence him were “un-American” and criticized Carr’s threats to investigate ABC over Kimmel’s show were “unintelligent.”
“Brendan Carr is the most embarrassing Carr Republicans have embraced since this one,” Kimmel said, displaying an image of a Tesla cybertruck with the word TRUMP written on it. “And that’s saying something.”
Kimmel also stressed: “This show is not important. What’s important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”
Background on Jimmy Kimmel Being Suspended
Brendan Carr, who Trump appointed as chair of the Federal Communications Commission, threatened last Wednesday that the FCC might take action against Disney-owned ABC, saying on a podcast, “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the F.C.C. ahead.”
He also called on ABC’s network affiliates to say, “Listen, we are going to pre-empt, we are not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out.”
Within hours, Nexstar, which needs FCC approval for a planned $6.2 billion deal to acquire a rival, announced that it would pre-empt Kimmel’s show. Additionally, Sinclair said it would also stop airing Kimmel’s show, and called on Kimmel to apologize and “make a meaningful personal donation” Kirk’s family and his conservative activist group, Turning Point USA.
ABC announced that it would “indefinitely” pull Kimmel’s show from the airwaves. Trump applauded the movie, and called on other networks to cancel their late-night hosts as well.
“Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!! President DJT” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Kimmel’s suspension came after fellow late night host Stephen Colbert had his show cancelled on CBS soon after he criticized Trump and Paramount, CBS’s owner.
In his return monologue Tuesday, Kimmel took time to thank his fellow late night hosts, including Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, and Seth Meyers, as well as past late-night hosts who came to his defense, including Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno.
He also thanked conservatives including Ben Shapiro, Mitch McConnell, Candace Owens and others who objected to removing his show, even though they disagreed with his politics. And he specifically noted that Sen. Ted Cruz — a Republican supporter of Donald Trump — had said that while he despised what Kimmel said about Kirk, it was wrong to cancel him.
Cruz said banning people from the airwaves for saying things the government doesn’t like would be “bad for conservatives.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever said this before, but Ted Cruz is right,” said Kimmel.
Main image: Jimmy Kimmel on Jimmy Kimmel Live Tuesday night. ABC.