Jimmy Kimmel is back, and he’s not backing down.
The late-night host’s regular show Jimmy Kimmel Live was sensationally pulled from the airwaves by ABC last week, following criticism of his comments about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk – and pressure from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr.
A week is a lifetime in commercial television. Kimmel’s suspension officially lifted with the return of his show Tuesday night, Sept. 23, and he wasted no time in resuming his merciless teasing of America’s conservative media and politicians, particularly President Donald Trump.
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Jimmy Kimmel Live opened with a montage of pundits, on both ends of the political spectrum, discussing both Kimmel’s return to our screen and his highly-anticipated opening monologue.
Would Kimmel double-down on his Republican jibes? Would he tease Trump? Would he call for free speech? Would he respond to the criticism of his Kirk comments. Yes, to all of it.
But first, a timely joke. “I’m not sure who had a weirder 48 hour,” he remarked, “me or the CEO of Tylenol,” a reference to the bizarre claim made by President Trump and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that the pain-killing drug was linked to autism.
He then got down to the tricky business of monologuing, and at times held back tears.
Kimmel thanked his many friends and supporters who checked in, including his “childhood heroes” David Letterman and David Stern, and an unlikely co-sign from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who has publicly reiterated Americans’ right to freedom of speech.
“It takes courage for them to speak out against this administration,” Kimmel responded. “They did and they deserve credit for it. And thanks for telling their followers that our government cannot be allowed to control what we do and do not say on television. And that we have to stand up to it.”
On Kirk, he remarked: “I have no illusions about changing anyone’s mind, but I do want to make something clear, because it’s important to me as a human and that is, you understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.”
He added, “Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what it was obviously a deeply disturbed individual. That was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make.” To some, he continued, it “felt either ill-timed or unclear or maybe both.”
This show, he continued, is not important. “What is important is that we get live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.”
Kimmel also rounded on the ABC affiliates who took down his show. “That’s not legal. That’s not American. That is unAmerican and it’s so dangerous.” The veteran broadcaster also gave a jab or eight to Trump, noting that the president’s gloating remarks about Kimmel’s suspension had generated enormous interest in the show. “You almost have to feel sorry for him. He tried to do his best to cancel me, instead he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly,” he quipped. “He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now.”
Watch Kimmel’s monologue below.
