The return of Jimmy Kimmel Live! earlier this week smashed the show’s rating records despite ABC affiliate Sinclair Broadcasting Group refusing to air it.
The US talk show host, 57, came back to screens on Tuesday after his show was taken off air by ABC and Disney after comments he made following Charlie Kirk’s death about the ‘MAGA gang’ trying to score political points.
Amid the right-wing backlash which led to his six-day suspension, hundreds of Hollywood stars petitioned to restore him to TV with the majority of fellow late-night hosts slamming the decision.
In his emotional return monologue, Kimmel said ‘it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man’ and also took down Trump who himself has threatened to sue ABC after Kimmel’s return.
Despite Trump declaring the comedian could ‘rot in his bad ratings’ in a lengthy, rambling post on Truth Social, the real figures could not be more different.
In fact, it has become the most-watched regularly-scheduled episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! ever, drawing in 6.3 million viewers – beaten only by the 2006 and 2014 Super Bowl specials. What’s more, the average viewership is 1.4m.
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An impressive feat given Nexstar and Sinclair’s refusal to broadcast the episodes led to 23% of households not being able to access it.
In his latest episode, Kimmel came for Trump again, responding to his social media threats in which he declared he ‘can’t believe ABC fake news gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back’.
‘You can’t believe they gave me my job back? I can’t believe we gave you your job back,’ Kimmel said in his line-by-line takedown.
He continued: ‘[Trump] says, “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!”
‘Only Donald Trump would try to prove he wasn’t threatening ABC by threatening ABC. And you almost have to feel sorry for the people who work for him who try to clean up the messes.’
Concluding with the ratings roast, Kimmel quipped: ‘He has some of the worst ratings any president has ever had. So on behalf of all of us, welcome to the crappy ratings club Mr. President.
‘Next, he’ll try to sue us. And I want to say good luck with that because we thought about it, we packed the courts, and we have a surprise ace up our sleeve: Mr. Judge Steve Harvey.’
Later declaring he talks about Trump because ‘he doesn’t like bullies’.
In a statement from ABC about their decision to pull Kimmel, they wrote ‘we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive’.
There’s no word on when the suspension will lift on Sinclair, with the Vice Chairman Jason Smith saying they won’t broadcast the show again until they are ‘confident that appropriate steps have been taken to uphold the standards expected of a national broadcast platform’.
Smith also called for Kimmel to apologise to Kirk’s family and offer a meaningful donation to them and Turning Point.
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