Jimmy Kimmel is speaking out after being suspended by ABC.
The late-night host returned to Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday night, six days after the show was abruptly pulled by the Disney-owned network on Wednesday.
He received a lengthy standing ovation from the moment he walked out on stage, with the studio audience clapping and chanting “Jimmy! Jimmy! Jimmy!”
“Anyway, as I was saying before I was interrupted,” he began, eliciting more cheers.
Later in his monologue, Kimmel addressed his previous remarks about Charlie Kirk directly.
“It was never my intention to make light of a murder of a young man,” Kimmel said as his voice broke.
“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. I still do,” he continued. “Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what was obviously a deeply disturbed individual. That was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make. But I understand that to some that felt either ill-timed or unclear or maybe both. And for those who think I did point a finger, I get why you’re upset.”
Gabe Ginsberg/Getty
“Let’s stop letting these politicians tell us what they want and tell them what we want,” Kimmel said, before giving credit to Kirk’s widow.
“Erika Kirk forgave the man who shot her husband. She forgave him. That is an example we should follow. If you believe in the teachings of Jesus, as I do, there it was,” he said, his voice cracking again. “That’s it. A selfless act of grace, forgiveness from a grieving widow. It touched me deeply. 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.”
Kimmel also took a strong stand against President Donald Trump, who previously gloated about the host’s downfall on social media.
“The president of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here fired from our jobs,” Kimmel said. “Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke.”
Kimmel continued, “He was somehow able to squeeze [Stephen] Colbert out of CBS. Then he turned his sights on me and now he’s openly rooting for NBC to fire Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, and the hundreds of Americans who work for their shows who don’t make millions of dollars. And I hope that if that happens or if there’s even any hint of that happening, you will be 10 times as loud as you were this week.”
The show continued with guests Glen Powell and Sarah McLachlan.
Watch Kimmel’s full monologue below:
ABC announced Monday that it would end Kimmel’s suspension.
“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,” the company said in a statement.
However, audiences whose local ABC stations are owned by affiliate groups Nexstar and Sinclair were unable to tune into Kimmel’s return to the airwaves, as both companies announced that they would continue to preempt Live until further notice despite ABC allowing him back.
Kimmel originally came under scrutiny for his remarks about Kirk’s alleged killer Tyler Robinson on Live‘s episode on Sept. 15.
Kimmel speculated, “We had some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and with everything they can to score political points from it.”
During an interview with The Benny Show on Wednesday, FCC chair Brendan Carr opined that Kimmel’s statement was “some of the sickest conduct possible” and explicitly encouraged ABC affiliates to pull the talk show from their lineups until Disney intervened in the matter.
Hours later, ABC affiliate Nexstar Media Group announced that Kimmel’s show would be preempted from their stations, just as Carr suggested, and cited their opposition to the comedians’s comments about Kirk’s death as justification.
ABC then confirmed that Jimmy Kimmel Live would be indefinitely preempted nationwide.
Carr later praised Nexstar, which recently announced it would acquire fellow broadcaster Tegna in a deal that will require FCC approval.
“I want to thank Nexstar for doing the right thing,” he wrote on social media. “Local broadcasters have an obligation to serve the public interest.”
Randy Holmes/ABC via Getty
Former President Barack Obama later condemned the Trump administration’s threats toward media companies.
“After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like,” he wrote on Bluesky while sharing a link to an article about Kimmel. “This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent — and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it.”
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Kimmel’s suspension also drew criticism from Jay Leno, Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, John Oliver, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Bill Maher, Seth Meyers, Howard Stern, Gavin Newsom, and Ted Cruz.
The suspension also prompted an open letter from the American Civil Liberties Union that criticized ABC’s decision. The letter was signed by over 400 Hollywood professionals, many of whom are currently or formerly employed by Disney, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Pedro Pascal, Tom Hanks, Selena Gomez, Meryl Streep, Mark Ruffalo, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Michael Keaton, Olivia Rodrigo, Maya Rudolph, and Diego Luna.
Jimmy Kimmel Live continues Wednesday, with guests Ethan Hawke, Lisa Ann Walter, and musical guest Yungblud, at 11:35 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
