Jimmy Kimmel Just Bluntly Revealed The 1 Very Personal Thing He Didn't "Want America To See" After ABC Ripped His Show Off The Air

As we know, Jimmy Kimmel Live! was briefly pulled off the air by ABC after being pressured by the Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, back in September. Person in a suit sits at a desk with a cityscape backdrop at night

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While ABC decided to bring back Jimmy’s show after a week, no one knew exactly what had happened behind the scenes when news officially broke…until now.Last night, Jimmy Kimmel visited The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as a guest while he was in New York for his annual week-long run in Brooklyn…and, as Stephen made clear in the interview, this was Jimmy’s first public interview since ABC put his show on pause and brought it back. Two men in suits talk on a late-night talk show set, with a cityscape backdrop behind them The Late Show with Stephen Colbert / CBS / Via youtube.com

The video, which was posted on The Late Show’s YouTube channel, began with Stephen asking Jimmy, “Have you recovered from that emotional roller coaster yet?” A person in a suit and tie is seated indoors, gesturing with one hand during a conversation on a talk show set The Late Show with Stephen Colbert / CBS / Via youtube.comJimmy agreed that it was an emotional roller coaster. “It really was; it was very strange,” he told Stephen. A man in a dark suit and patterned tie sits on a talk show set, speaking animatedly The Late Show with Stephen Colbert / CBS / Via youtube.comNext, he gave a minute-by-minute play of what happened when he found out the news: “It was about 3 o’clock. We tape our show at 4:30. I’m in my office, typing away as I usually do. I get a phone call; it’s ABC. They say they want to talk to me.” A man in a suit and tie is speaking animatedly while seated on a talk show set The Late Show with Stephen Colbert / CBS / Via youtube.com“This is unusual,” Jimmy continued. “As far as I knew, they didn’t even know I was doing a show previous to this. So I have a lot of people, I have, like, five people who work in my office with me, so the only private place to go is the bathroom.””So I go into the bathroom, and I’m on the phone with ABC executives, and they say, ‘Listen, we want to take the temperature down. We’re concerned about what you’re gonna say tonight, and we’ve decided that the best route is to take the show off the air,” he said. Two talk show hosts sit together on a late-night program set, engaging in conversation The Late Show with Stephen Colbert / CBS / Via youtube.com

Right after recounting this moment to Stephen, the in-studio audience booed, and Jimmy joked and said, “That’s what I said. I started booing.” Then he continued with the story. “I said, ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ and they said, ‘Well, we think it’s a good idea.’ And then there was a vote, and I lost the vote.”Some of the audience started to boo again, and Jimmy joked, “So, I put my pants back on, I walked out to my office, and I called in some of the executive producers. There are about nine people in [the office], and I said, ‘They’re pulling the show off the air.’ My wife said I was whiter than [comedian] Jim Gaffigan when I came out of there.” A man in a suit on a talk show set gestures animatedly during a conversation The Late Show with Stephen Colbert / CBS / Via youtube.comStephen then asked, “What’s the first thing that occurred to you?” Jimmy answered, “I thought, ‘That’s it; it’s over. I’m never coming back on air,’ that’s really what I thought.”Jimmy continued, “So we told our staff…meanwhile, the whole audience…they’re in their seats!” This news shocked Stephen, “Oh, wait, I didn’t know that your audience was already loaded!” And Jimmy nods in agreement and adds, “They’re loaded and in their seats, ready for the show. We had a chef, a guy named Christian Petroni, on the show who was making meatballs and polenta that night. He’d been cooking all day.” Two talk show hosts in suits have a lively discussion on a TV set with a cityscape background The Late Show with Stephen Colbert / CBS / Via youtube.com

Then Jimmy talks about having singer and musician Howard Jones on the show, who was taping a performance. “The song he did do — because we decided to tape it anyway, even though we sent the audience home — in front of our disappointed employees: ‘Things Can Only Get Better,’ which you can take two ways, right?” he joked.Jimmy continues the recap: “Then we said, ‘Oh, we sent the audience home, we need the staff to go in and listen to Howard Jones and pretend to be the audience…and then, the staff went and ate polenta and meatballs afterwards.” A person in a suit is animatedly talking on a talk show set The Late Show with Stephen Colbert / CBS / Via youtube.com

“I stayed at the show for a couple of hours, and I go home, I’m followed by 20 paparazzi cars: TMZ, people jumping in front of me on the way home — we’re just trying to get to the house… There are two helicopters flying over. Meanwhile, I hadn’t had makeup on yet, so my bald spot was not painted in. This is something I did not want America to see,” he said.

“We get to the house, and we’re shaken. The kids are up — I’ve got two kids — and our daughter, who’s 11 years old, says, ‘I can sell my Labubus’… Our son just got naked and started running around the house,” he said.

“It was like a DUI in LA: three days in jail where I couldn’t say anything; I just had to sit quiet and make a lot of phone calls and take a lot of phone calls. You were very kind to call me,” Jimmy said as he pointed to Stephen. “We spoke about this — certainly you know well.”

For the rest of the conversation between Stephen and Jimmy, they discussed everyone who texted them when they each heard about their respective cancellations. Stephen eventually had to cut to a commercial break. A person in a suit and glasses is smiling and sitting at a nighttime talk show desk against a cityscape backdrop The Late Show with Stephen Colbert / CBS / Via youtube.comAfter the video posted, viewers in the comments were giving Jimmy and Stephen lots of love:

“Stephen and Jimmy are helping me and a lot of others, stay sane. Protect them at all costs,” one user said. Comment praising Stephen and Jimmy for helping others stay sane and expressing the need to protect them “‘ I can sell my Labubus.’ – that made me cry as a parent. what a sweet daughter,” one person said. Comment by @psync71: "I can sell my Laboos." That made me cry as a parent. ? What a sweet daughter. ? “They’re smarter, kinder and better humans than him. He hates that. Heroes from wherever we can get them. FDT” Tweet by @BWMatson: "They're smarter, kinder and better humans than him. He hates that. Heroes from wherever we can get them. FDT." You can watch the full video below:So what are your thoughts on this conversation between Jimmy and Stephen? Tell us what you feel and why in the comments below.