Jimmy Kimmel returned to late night yesterday after nearly a week off the air with a monologue that largely dispensed with laughs. Instead, over the course of nearly 20 minutes, he ran right at his critics, and stated plainly what many commentators have argued since production of Jimmy Kimmel Live was suspended last Wednesday: “Our government cannot be allowed to control what we do and do not say on television.”
It was a forceful beginning to the episode, but also a fairly sober one—a speech that underlined the surreality of recent events, during which an irreverent talk-show comedian became a government target and a chilling, public example of the erosion of constitutional rights under President Donald Trump. Kimmel, who has spent most of his late-night career as a flippant, but not particularly scandalous figure, acknowledged just how scary things had become that the White House might take aim at him. “This show is not important, he said. “What’s important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”
Jimmy Kimmel Live resumed production after a tense week for ABC, which airs the show, and its parent company, Disney. Protests against the host’s pre-emption—which, in a Monday statement announcing that the show would be back the following night, Disney cited as a decision made to “avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country”—mounted. Kimmel’s quip about how the “MAGA gang” was characterizing Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin during last Monday’s episode had provoked Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr had said in response during a podcast interview last Wednesday. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or, you know, there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
Carr’s threat—and the resulting removal of Jimmy Kimmel Live from broadcast—quickly raised alarm bells around Hollywood, where hundreds of Kimmel’s peers signed an open letter by the American Civil Liberties Union, expressing support of the host. Officials in Washington, including those from both sides of the aisle, also expressed frustration with the commissioner.
“It is unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying, ‘We’re going to decide what speech we like and what we don’t, and we’re going to threaten to take you off air if we don’t like what you’re saying,’” Senator Ted Cruz remarked on his podcast. Senator Rand Paul also called the commissioner’s comments “absolutely inappropriate.”
During his monologue, Kimmel acknowledged his surprise and appreciation for people like Cruz, a frequent punchline on the show, coming to his defense. “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,” he said, before playing the clip from Cruz’s podcast. Kimmel’s punchline: “I don’t think I’ve ever said this before, but Ted Cruz is right.”
Cruz and Paul were among the rare elected Republican voices amongst a chorus expressing similar concerns—that the pressure being put on ABC set a concerning precedent for free speech. Even Carr, who initially seemed to celebrate Jimmy Kimmel Live’s indefinite hiatus, attempted to walk back the idea that the FCC had been responsible. “Jimmy Kimmel is in the situation that he is in because of his ratings, not because of anything that’s happened at the federal government level,” he claimed on Monday, while speaking at a forum in New York.
Kimmel was plainly scornful of Carr upon his return, calling the commissioner’s behavior “a direct violation of the First Amendment” and poking at his approach: “If you want to hear a mob boss make a threat like that, you have to hide a microphone in a deli and park outside in a van with a tape recorder all night long. This genius said it on a podcast.” Later in the show, the host did a segment with Robert De Niro, who appeared in-character as a new, even more threatening FCC commissioner making naked threats to Disney.
Kimmel’s strident stance last night made clear that he had prevailed in his weeklong power struggle with Disney; he was addressing the controversy on what seemed to be his own terms. While the comedian did acknowledge his comments about the man suspected of killing Kirk, he offered no direct apology. (He also avoided discussing the substance of his joke, which some had interpreted as implying the murder was an act of right-wing violence, which available evidence contradicts.) But Kimmel choked up as he insisted, “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.”
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 either felt ill-timed or unclear. Or maybe both. For those who think I did point a finger, I get why you’re upset.” In his monologue, however, Kimmel was uninterested in further litigating those comments, preferring to focus on the First Amendment threat he saw in the FCC’s behavior.
In all, suspending Kimmel stood to do more harm than good for Disney. The late-night host’s contract at ABC isn’t up until May 2026; removing him from the airwaves permanently would not have saved the network much money. That’s why Stephen Colbert remains at CBS through next May, even if his show has become unprofitable—his contract as the host of The Late Show has to be honored either way. Beyond that, the public reaction to Kimmel’s pre-emption was strong enough that it seemed to be costing Disney just as dearly. Its stock price briefly declined in the days after the news, hundreds of celebrities campaigned on Kimmel’s behalf, and even some Disney influencers were calling for organized boycotts of the company. Kimmel himself mocked the backlash on last night’s show, producing a piece of paper and reading a statement on his bosses’ behalf that instructed viewers on how to reactivate their Disney+ subscriptions.
After Kimmel’s monologue, the episode proceeded as Jimmy Kimmel Live tends to do, with some more political jabs (largely aimed at Trump) and a glitzy celebrity interview with the actor Glen Powell. The host’s tone was less triumphant than resolute: He seemed convinced of the glum realities of our political moment. He criticized Trump for calling for his show’s cancellation, and those of the NBC shows hosted by Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, pointing out that hundreds of employees at each program would be affected along with the hosts. “Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke,” Kimmel said. “Let’s stop letting these politicians tell us what they want and tell them what we want.”
Kimmel has frequently pondered retirement of late; “I think this is my final contract,” he mused to the Los Angeles Times in 2024. More recently, he equivocated, acknowledging the crew that relies on him for employment: “I’ve realized that there’s no point in talking about it. It upsets the people I work with,” he said in an interview with Rolling Stone earlier this year. But it seems doubtful that Kimmel’s reign as the longest-tenured late-night host still working will last much longer.
What was clear last night, though, was that Kimmel did not just want to vanish from ABC. His presence on TV is still inspiring panic and outrage, with local TV affiliates Nexstar and Sinclair refusing to broadcast his show pending further discussions with ABC. But the bellicosity surrounding Kimmel’s comments has also receded: Sinclair dropped its idea of airing a special about Kirk in Kimmel’s timeslot (a re-run of Celebrity Family Feud aired instead). Late night on network television, as a medium, has an outdated business model, and some companies may not go to the trouble of offering it as the media landscape continues to shift. But when Kimmel steps away from the desk, it’ll likely be his decision.
