{"id":227957,"date":"2026-01-05T04:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T04:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/227957\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T04:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T04:45:07","slug":"jimmy-kimmel-thanks-trump-openai-at-2026-critics-choice-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/227957\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Kimmel Thanks Trump, OpenAI at 2026 Critics Choice Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJimmy Kimmel<\/a> said he was surprised to win best talk series at the 2026 Critics Choice Awards<\/a>, but he still came equipped with a number of sharp barbs and a comically long written acceptance speech, which he unrolled onstage.<\/p>\n

\n\tKimmel quipped that he would have preferred a \u201cFIFA peace prize,\u201d<\/a> referring to the award President Donald Trump<\/a> received at the, now renamed, Kennedy Center during the World Cup draw last month.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter that, Kimmel unrolled a comedically long written acceptance speech as he said he \u201creally didn\u2019t expect this,\u201d and thanked the critics, calling out three specific reviewers by name, including Jeffrey Howard from KCLV-TV in Las Vegas, whom Kimmel, a Sin City native, said he went to high school with.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe went on to thank \u201cour friends at Disney,\u201d naming CEO Bob Iger, entertainment co-chairman Dana Walden<\/a> and even OpenAI<\/a> boss Sam Altman<\/a>, who, Kimmel said, \u201cwho now owns my voice and face. Please don\u2019t do anything weird with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKimmel\u2019s remarks about Altman appear to be a reference to Disney\u2019s recent $1 billion investment in OpenAI<\/a> that included striking a licensing deal with the Altman-run AI powerhouse. The latter agreement would allow users of OpenAI\u2019s Sora to create clips using characters from the Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars franchises.<\/p>\n

\n\tKimmel was nominated alongside his late night competitors The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Late Night With Seth Meyers, The Daily Show and Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen as well as YouTube\u2019s Hot Ones. Kimmel joked that his fellow nominees, save Hot Ones\u2018 Sean Evans, who was shown onscreen laughing at Kimmel\u2019s acceptance speech, \u201cdid not care enough to be here with you tonight.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tOf Evans, Kimmel joked that one day he\u2019d be \u201cthe only one left.\u201d Questions have emerged in recent months about the future of late-night TV<\/a> after CBS canceled The Late Show for what the network claimed were financial reasons<\/a>. Meanwhile, Trump has gone after Colbert, Kimmel and Meyers<\/a>, saying they all should be taken off the air.<\/p>\n

\n\tKimmel\u2019s win comes after ABC briefly<\/a> suspended<\/a> him this fall after he made comments about Charlie Kirk\u2019s killer that led Trump\u2019s FCC chair to threaten ABC affiliates\u2019 licenses.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince returning to the air, Kimmel and wife and co-head writer Molly McNearney<\/a>, who joined Kimmel onstage Sunday night, have spoken out in support of free speech<\/a>, and Kimmel took time on Sunday night to address the issue and Trump.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThanks to all the writers and actors and producers and union members, many of you who are in this room, who supported us, who really stepped forward us and reminded us that we do not take free speech for granted in this city or in this country,\u201d Kimmel said. \u201cYour actions were important, and we appreciate them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe later added, \u201cMost of all I wanna thank our president, Donald Jennifer Trump. Without whom, we\u2019d be going home empty-handed tonight. So thank you, Mr. President for all the many ridiculous things you do each and every day. It\u2019s been a banner couple of weeks, and we can\u2019t wait to get back on the air tomorrow night to talk about them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jimmy Kimmel said he was surprised to win best talk series at the 2026 Critics Choice Awards, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[6971,116955,116956,107975,969,93,61,60,3484,3488,13478,1682,7689,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-227957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-awards","9":"tag-critics-choice","10":"tag-critics-choice-2026","11":"tag-critics-choice-awards","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","17":"tag-jimmy-kimmel-live","18":"tag-late-night-tv","19":"tag-openai","20":"tag-sam-altman","21":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227957","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=227957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}