![\"Jimmy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/124103038.jpg\" "\\"Jimmy")
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File photo: Jimmy Kimmel (Picture credit: AP)<\/p>\n
Jimmy Kimmel<\/a>\u2019s return to ABC on Tuesday night drew one of the largest audiences for \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d in a decade, nearly four times his usual viewership, despite more than 20% of affiliates pre-empting the show, according to preliminary Nielsen data. The episode averaged 6.2 million viewers, while the monologue\u2019s online reach nearly reached 26 million views across YouTube and social media, according to news agency Reuters.Kimmel\u2019s return came after ABC and parent company Disney<\/a> suspended his show on September 17 following controversy over comments he made regarding the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The suspension prompted public debate about free speech and accusations of government overreach, after the Trump administration and FCC Chair Brendan Carr had applied pressure on the network.In his monologue, Kimmel addressed the controversy directly, saying, \u201cThis show is not important. What\u2019s important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this\u201d. He also condemned threats aimed at silencing him, adding, \u201cA government threat to silence a comedian the president doesn\u2019t like is anti-American\u201d.Kimmel also poked fun at US President Donald Trump, who had mocked his ratings and suggested legal action against ABC ahead of the broadcast. Trump had also recently written on Truth Social, \u201cLet Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings\u201d.The comedian played a clip of Trump aboard Air Force One saying Kimmel \u201chad no ratings,\u201d and replied to applause from the studio audience, \u201cWell, I do tonight,\u201d Reuters noted.Several major affiliate owners, including Nexstar and Sinclair, continued to pre-empt the broadcast in about a quarter of US households, citing objections to Kimmel\u2019s comments. Nexstar said it was \u201cengaged in productive discussions\u201d with Disney about the show\u2019s content.Trump, meanwhile, had attacked ABC and Kimmel on social media, calling the comedian \u201cDemocrat garbage\u201d and suggesting the network\u2019s decision to return the show was an \u201cillegal campaign contribution\u201d. He warned ABC that he intended to \u201ctest\u201d the network again, mocking it as \u201ca true bunch of losers.\u201dThe episode marked a major ratings success for Kimmel, whose show typically averaged around 1.42 million viewers in the 2024-25 season, according to Reuters. Kimmel acknowledged supporters across the political spectrum, thanking conservatives like Senator Ted Cruz, who defended his right to free expression, saying, \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever said this before, but Ted Cruz is right\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"File photo: Jimmy Kimmel (Picture credit: AP) Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s return to ABC on Tuesday night drew one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[10046,7391,4550,146,23093,85,46,4176,26882,5114,30161,627,30162,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-36762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-abc","9":"tag-controversy","10":"tag-disney","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-fcc","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","16":"tag-nexstar","17":"tag-ratings","18":"tag-sinclair","19":"tag-trump","20":"tag-truth-social","21":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}