{"id":200299,"date":"2025-12-19T15:05:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T15:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/200299\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T15:05:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T15:05:08","slug":"jimmy-kimmel-chokes-back-tears-over-hard-year-in-final-show-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/200299\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Kimmel Chokes Back Tears Over \u2018Hard Year\u2019 in Final Show of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jimmy Kimmel<\/a> grew emotional while thanking viewers during the final 2025 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!<\/a>, reflecting that it had been a \u201cstrange and hard year.\u201d<\/p>\n

During Thursday\u2019s (December 18) opening monologue, the late-night host told his studio audience, \u201cThis has been a strange year. It\u2019s been a hard year<\/a>. We\u2019ve had some lows, we\u2019ve had some highs. For me, maybe more than any year of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he choked back tears, Kimmel said, \u201cI\u2019m crying already, I\u2019m sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOn behalf of all of us at the show, I just want to say that we appreciate your support, your enthusiasm, and not just for watching\u2026 this year, you literally pulled us out of a hole, and we cannot thank you enough personally,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

This has certainly been a tumultuous year for the late-night show, which was temporarily yanked off the air in September following backlash to comments Kimmel made about the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk<\/a>. The suspension came after Donald Trump<\/a>-appointed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr<\/a> issued thinly-veiled threats, leading network affiliates to refuse to air the show.<\/p>\n

The suspension was lifted less than a week later amid outrage from ABC viewers, many of whom called the show\u2019s removal an attack on free speech. Despite Kimmel\u2019s return to late-night<\/a>, Trump continued to insult the host<\/a> on social media and call for ABC to cancel the show.<\/p>\n

In addition to the suspension drama, Kimmel also lost his best friend and the show\u2019s band leader, Cleto Escobedo III,\u00a0 who passed away in November<\/a> following liver transplant complications. Kimmel delivered an emotional tribute to his friend on the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know there are a lot harder jobs, but this is not an easy job to do, and sometimes it feels like we\u2019re spinning our wheels, you see so many awful and destructive acts\u2026 it can make you feel crazy trying to wrap your head around these things that are so clearly wrong,\u201d he continued in Thursday\u2019s monologue.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when I hear from people who tell me that they watch our show, and the shows that my friends and colleagues do on the other channels, and that it makes them feel less crazy, it makes me feel less crazy too,\u201d Kimmel stated. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s an important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said it\u2019s important that \u201cas Americans we let our friends in other countries\u2026 know that a lot of us are not OK with what is happening.\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is still much more good in this country than bad,\u201d Kimmel told his international viewers. \u201cAnd we hope that you will bear with us during this extended psychotic episode that we\u2019re in the middle of.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can watch Kimmel\u2019s full opening monologue in the video above and let us know your thoughts below.<\/p>\n

Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Weeknights, 11:35\/10:35c, ABC<\/p>\n

Read the latest entertainment news on TV Insider<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jimmy Kimmel grew emotional while thanking viewers during the final 2025 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, reflecting that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,3484,57880,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-200299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","12":"tag-opening-monologue","13":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}