By Lukas I. Alpert
Kimmel’s first show back after being suspended for a week drew nearly four times his normal audience to watch him deliver a defense of First Amendment rights
Jimmy Kimmel’s first show back after a weeklong suspension over a free-speech fight drew 6.26 million viewers, nearly four times the normal audience for his show.
Jimmy Kimmel’s free-speech fight with the Trump administration has turned out to be a ratings bonanza.
The late-night host drew an audience of 6.26 million viewers for his first show back Tuesday night after a weeklong suspension over remarks he made about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk that angered the White House.
That marked Kimmel’s highest-rated show in over a decade – since he interviewed President Barack Obama in 2015 – and amounted to nearly four times his normal audience of about 1.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen data.
Kimmel’s opening monologue, in which he expressed contrition for how his remarks were interpreted and lit into Trump for pressuring ABC to suspend his program, also drew 26 million views on YouTube and across social-media channels, ABC said.
That outsized audience came despite the fact that Kimmel’s show was not shown on nearly a quarter of ABC’s 250 affiliate channels.
“He tried his best to cancel me but instead forced millions of people to watch the show,” Kimmel quipped in his opening remarks Tuesday. “That backfired bigly.”
Also read: Jimmy Kimmel has now returned to network TV. Other outspoken American workers may not be so fortunate.
Kimmel had been taken off the air a week earlier after two of ABC’s largest local television affiliates, Nexstar Media Group Inc. (NXST) and Sinclair Inc. (SBGI), said they planned to pull his show indefinitely due to his comments about Kirk’s death.
The move led ABC parent the Walt Disney Co. (DIS) to suspend Kimmel’s show entirely.
That decision came just hours after Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, criticized Kimmel’s comments and threatened to take steps against ABC and its affiliates if they didn’t rein him in.
Nexstar is in the midst of a $6.2 billion merger with Tegna Inc (TGNA), that will require FCC approval to go through.
Disney’s decision to pull Kimmel’s show off the air brought calls for a boycott of its streaming services from some who saw the move as a weak-kneed capitulation to government demands and an assault on free speech.
Trump had hailed Disney’s decision at first, but later suggested he might pursue legal action after the company decided to return Kimmel to the air.
Disney’s decision to bring Kimmel back has sparked ire and similar calls for a boycott from conservatives who feel the company is simply caving under liberal pressure.
The FCC has become far more forceful under the second Trump administration in seeking to use regulation to get media outlets to comply with the government’s wishes.
Amid the long-drawn-out acquisition of Paramount by Skydance, the FCC held up approval pending the settlement of a defamation suit brought by Trump against CBS News, which legal experts viewed as baseless.
Before the merger was approved, Paramount announced it was cancelling the top-rated “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” whose host is a frequent Trump critic. The company, now called Paramount-Skydance Corp. (PSKY), has also promised to create new editing rules and appointed a conservative think-tanker as ombudsman following administration complaints.
Last December, ABC News settled a defamation case filed by Trump, which many experts said was winnable for the network, for $16 million.
-Lukas I. Alpert
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09-24-25 2247ET
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