Eight days after he was unceremoniously yanked off the air, Jimmy Kimmel returned to ABC Tuesday night with a monologue that got right to the point. “I’m happy to be here tonight with all of you,” Kimmel began. “I’m not sure who had a weirder 48 hours—me or the CEO of Tylenol.”
Kimmel then thanked everyone who reached out to him in the week he was off the air, including fellow late night hosts Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Conan O’Brien, and former ABC host James Corden. He also made a point of thanking “the people who don’t support my show and what I believe, but support my right to share those beliefs anyway”—folks like Ben Shapiro, Clay Travis, Candace Owens, Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, and even Kimmel’s longtime antagonist Ted Cruz, all of whom publicly supported Kimmel’s right to free speech following his suspension.
Last week, ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live after comments Kimmel made about the MAGA movement’s response to the murder of Charlie Kirk raised the ire of the Trump administration. The decision came after FCC Chair Brendan Carr complained about Kimmel on a right-wing podcast and threatened to investigate ABC if it did not take action against the comedian. Following Carr’s comments, affiliates owned by the conglomerates Nexstar and Sinclair announced they would preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live—and in turn, ABC announced that the show had been pulled from the air “indefinitely.”
Though Kimmel directly addressed Carr’s criticism—and poked fun at the federal employee’s total about-face regarding the importance of political satire—he also sounded a note of contrition about the comments that had led to his suspension in the first place. “It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” Kimmel said, his voice breaking. “I don’t think the murderer who shot Charlie Kirk represents anyone. This was a sick person who believed violence was a solution, and it isn’t, ever.”
At the end of his monologue, Kimmel also praised Erika Kirk for the comments she made at her husband’s livestreamed memorial on Sunday night. “I don’t know if you saw this—Erika Kirk forgave the man who shot her husband,” he said. “That is an example we should follow. If you believe in the teachings of Jesus, as I do, there it was. That’s it. A selfless act of grace, forgiveness from a grieving widow. It touched me deeply.”
On Monday, Disney announced that Kimmel’s show—which has aired on ABC since January 2003—would return to the air. In a statement, the nation’s largest media company said that it had suspended the show “to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” adding that it “spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy.” Though Disney relented, viewers across the country who access ABC through affiliates owned by Many viewers access ABC through affiliate networks, and two of the largest affiliate operators, Sinclair and Nexstar, said they would preempt the show after Disney announced his return.
