Tuesday night marked the return of Jimmy Kimmel Live! after nearly week-long suspension, silencing the comedian and late-night show host. Kimmel, who saw his show preempted last week due to comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s shooter, was welcomed back to joyous applause for what many newscasts dubbed one of the most pivotal monologues in late-night history. View the full 28-minute segment below.
After a standing ovation, Kimmel took control of the studio, quipping that he didn’t know if he or the CEO of Tylenol had a wilder 48 hours (a reference to the press conference in which President Trump made a false claim about Tylenol causing autism). He detailed how everyone he knew — both past and present colleagues — reached out to him. Even the manager who fired him from a Seattle radio show gig in 1989. He also thanked his fellow late-night peers, including Stephen Colbert (The Daily Show, The Colbert Report) and Seth Meyers (Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Seth Meyers), as well as Arsenio Hall (Coming to America, Harlem Nights) and Jay Leno (The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Jay Leno Show).
After thanking the studio audience and supporters, he thanked those who may not support him.
“And maybe, weirdly, maybe most of all, I want to thank the people who don’t support my show and what I believe, but support my right to share those beliefs anyway,” Kimmel explained. “People who I never would have imagined, like Ben Shapiro, Clay Travis, Candace Owens, Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, even my old pal, Ted Cruz, who, believe it or not, said something very beautiful on my behalf.”
While highlighting that he doesn’t agree with most of those people’s opinions, Kimmel detailed how they “deserve credit” for standing up to the government in this instance.
Kimmel paused from the jokes, becoming visibly emotional, to reiterate that he never aimed to disparage or joke about Kirk’s death.
“You understand that 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, sending love to his family and asking for compassion, and I meant it, and I still do,” Kimmel detailed. He also makes clear that he did not aim to blame “any specific group” for the actions of the alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson.
After this moment of solace, he returned to a comedic flow, aiming at FCC Chair Brendan Carr, saying he’s “the most embarrassing car Republicans have embraced since this one,” and displays a photo of a Tesla painted like the American flag with “Trump” spraypainted gold. He even displayed Carr’s tweets from 2022, highlighting his support for free speech under the Biden administration when he was the FCC commissioner. Kimmel then played a similar reel from 2022 of Trump stating, “If we don’t have free speech, then we just don’t have a free country. It’s as simple as that.”
This was followed by a video of Trump disparaging the “no talent” Kimmel for being fired because he had no ratings. Kimmel responded: “Well, I do tonight.”
“You almost have to feel sorry for him. He tried his best to cancel me. Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show,” Kimmel joked about Trump. “That backfired bigly. He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now.” The crowd erupted in cheers and applause.
Kimmel thanked ABC and the people who have allowed him to do this show for the past 23 years, and warned that Trump is simply aiming his ire at NBC, calling for them to fire Jimmy Fallon (Taxi, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon) and Meyers.
Finally, before the first commercial break, Kimmel made an emotional appeal for people to replicate a gracious act he witnessed from Kirk’s widow, Erica Kirk.
“On Sunday, Erica Kirk forgave the man who shot her husband. She forgave him. That is an example we should follow,” Kimmel said tearfully. “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, and I hope it touches many. And if there’s anything we should take from this tragedy to carry forward, I hope it can be that and not this.”
While Kimmel returned to the airwaves yesterday evening, he did not appear in all households. Sinclair Media Group and Nexstar have both decided not to air the show on their ABC affiliate stations. Sinclair says they will resume airing Jimmy Kimmel Live! once Kimmel apologizes to the Kirk family and donates to Turning Point USA.
Since the opening monologue was posted to YouTube fifteen hours ago, it has garnered 14.1 million views.