“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” I slam back on Tuesday night.
After nearly a week of suspension, the late-night talk show, which is named after Jimmy Kimmel, attracted 6.26 million viewers in the first episode. This feat was achieved despite unavailable for 23% of US television households as Nexstar and Sinclair preempted the show in the markets that belong to ABC.
In the Key 18-49 demographic, the show scored a rating of 0.87, marking the show’s best regularly scheduled episode since March 2015.
These early numbers don’t include streaming ratings, but since then, the monologue has gained over 26 million views across YouTube and social platforms.
Before his suspension, Kimmel’s show was struggling as its total audience rating fell in August 2025, down 43% from 1.95 million in January.
The late-night show was pulled “indefinitely” by Disney’s ABC after Kimmel commented on the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel opened his show on Tuesday night with a tearful speech for his fans, but the comedian did not apologise for his previous comments.
“I have no illusions about changing someone’s mind, but I want to be clear about something because as a human being, I understand that it is important to me, meaning you are not going to lighten the murder of a young man,” the 57-year-old said as his voice broke. “I don’t think there’s anything interesting.”
“It wasn’t my intention to blame a particular group for the actions of what was clearly a deeply disturbed individual. It was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make,” he continued, expressing his sadness towards Erika, Kirk’s widow, via social media after his assassination.
“But for those who don’t understand it or feel unclear, or both, and for those who think I pointed my finger… I see why you were upset.
Kimmel also said that President Donald Trump’s jabs were “no talent” and “no rating” and “tonight, I’m tonight!”
In a September 15 monologue addressing Kirk’s death, the comedian joked that the “Magagang” was trying to portray Kirk’s murderer Tyler Robinson as “something other than one of them,” and was using the death of a conservative activist to promote the political agenda.
Kimmel’s comments have prompted a quick response from the media conglomerates FCC and Nexstar Media, which own many ABC-related markets. The latter organization quickly vowed to pre-empt Kimmel’s show from the market.
After raucous protests from Kimmel fans and other celebrities, the network announced Kimmel’s show’s return on Monday following a “thoughtful conversation” between parties.
“Last Wednesday, we decided to suspend production of the show, avoiding further inflammatory conditions that were tense in our country’s emotional moments,” the company explained in a statement.
“This is a decision we made because we felt that some of the comments were poorly timed and therefore insensitive. We spent our last day having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
However, as previously reported, sources only told Page 6 that Kimmel’s suspension has something to do with Disney CEO Bob Iger trying to create a bigger legacy for him.
“(Igar) you might come across as this smooth Hollywood nice guy, but he’s not a bull.
“There’s no risk that (Iger) isn’t rich, but if he loses the FCC and the ABC is struggling financially, he’s suffering,” another source speculated. “He wants to be a visionary guy like Walt Disney,” they added, suggesting that the fallout with the FCC would be a fatal blow to his Disney legacy.
The first source continued to explain that ABC’s decision to get Kimmel’s show back was a “complete compromise.”
