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Jimmy Kimmel Covers Suspension, Trump/FCC & More in Emotional Return

Jimmy Kimmel addressed his suspension, called out Donald Trump and FCC Chair Brendan Carr, and more during an emotional monologue.

Despite Nexstar and Sinclair continuing to preempt the late-night talk show on their affiliate stations, Jimmy Kimmel Live! returned on Tuesday night, nearly a week after ABC pulled the show over comments Jimmy Kimmel made during last Tuesday's monologue. After hearing from late-night colleagues Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart, and Seth Meyers last night about the network's decision to bring the late-night host back, tonight was all about hearing what Kimmel had to say. We've got some highlights below, while the entire monologue is available to cheeck out below.

Kicking things off with a montage of news anchors discussing his return and how momentous his monologue will be, the camera cuts to Kimmel and Guillermo watching on a monitor in costumes, joking that they might need to change.

From there, Kimmel took to the stage with righteous applause and chants of "Kimmel! Kimmel!" After joking that he's not sure if he's had a weirder stretch of days than the Tylenol CEO (referring to Trump claiming Tylenol contributes to autism), Kimmel went on to list and thank everyone who came out to support him – especially the fans who fought for his return and those who disagree with him but support his right to free speech (even crediting Ted Cruz with a clip where Cruz spoke out against Kimmel's suspension). "I want to thank the people who don't support my show and what I believe, but support my right to share those beliefs anyway," Kimmel shared. From there, Kimmel took on Donald Trump and FCC Chair Brendan Carr for their efforts to shut down the show and attempt to control free speech. "He [Trump] tried his best to cancel me. Instead he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly. He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now," Kimmel noted at one point.

"I've had the opportunity to meet and spend time with comedians and talk show hosts from countries like Russia, countries in the Middle East, who told me they would get thrown in prison for making fun of those in power, and worse than being thrown in prison, they know how lucky we are here. Our freedom to speak is what they admire most about this country, and that's something I'm embarrassed to say I took for granted until they pulled my friend Stephen off the air and tried to coerce the affiliates who run our show in the cities that you live in to take my show off the air. That's not legal. That's not American. That is un-American." – Jimmy Kimmel

Here's a look at what Kimmel had to say regarding his comments last week related to the late conservative podcaster and activist Charlie Kirk and praising Kirk's widow, Erika, for forgiving the person who shot her husband:

Jimmy Kimmel on The Future of Late-Night Television

"Network television is declining. There's no question about that. But more people are watching late-night television than ever before — and I include Johnny Carson in that. People may find that shocking," Kimmel shared with Variety during an interview from August when asked for his thought on whether late-night talk shows are coming to the end of their run. "When Carson was at his peak, he was getting around 9 million viewers a night. That's huge. Of course, the lead-in shows were getting 30 and 40 million, which was a big part of it. But people are still watching late-night — just in different places. Our monologues get between 2 and 5 million views, sometimes more, every night. Seth Meyers gets 2 million on YouTube alone. We're not even talking about Instagram or the other platforms. 'The Daily Show' — Jon Stewart on a Monday night will get 5 million views. Then you add in the TV ratings."

Kimmel continued, "So the idea that late-night is dead is simply untrue. People just aren't watching it on network television in the numbers they used to — or live, for that matter. So the advertising model may be dying, but late-night television is the opposite. If you look at streaming numbers — how many streaming shows get 10 million views a week? Twenty million? Very few. I think if you really look at how people are watching these shows, and the numbers, it's right up there with the top shows on Netflix and Hulu. Yet in the media, you'd think this is a rotting corpse — which it most certainly is not. It just doesn't add up. It's a great storyline for the press, but it's simply not true."

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