Jimmy Kimmel was welcomed back to late night with open arms — and a few gags — from his fellow talk show hosts on Tuesday, September 23.
The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon and The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert both gave Kimmel, 57, a shout-out in their opening monologues Tuesday night as Jimmy Kimmel Live! returned to ABC after a six-day suspension.
“If you’re tuning in to see what I’ll say about my suspension the last couple of days, again, you’re watching the wrong Jimmy. Dad! The other Jimmy, Dad,” Fallon, 51, quipped on his long-running NBC talk show.
Fallon, of course, shares the same first name as Kimmel and previously joked that his father thought he was suspended. “This morning, I woke up to 100 text messages from my dad saying, ‘I’m sorry they canceled your show.’ I go, ‘That’s not me, that’s Jimmy Kimmel,’” Fallon said on the Thursday, September 18, episode of The Tonight Show in the wake of Kimmel’s suspension the day before.
Jimmy Kimmel was the talk of late night television on Thursday, September 18, despite his own show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, being taken off the air by ABC earlier this week. ABC pulled the talk show from its schedules on Wednesday, September 17, after criticism over Kimmel’s comments about the death of conservative political commentator Charlie […]
Colbert, whose CBS talk show is due to end in May 2026, thanked his audience and viewers — or rather, viewer — for tuning in amid strong competition from Kimmel’s return show.
“I’m so grateful to have this show. I’m going to say thanks to everybody in here and everybody watching from home, who I think might just be my wife, Evie, because everybody else is probably watching ABC ‘cause tonight Jimmy Kimmel returned to the airwaves,” Colbert, 61, joked.
He added, “I’m glad Kimmel’s back. He’s a wonderful fella. To know him well is to admire him immensely, even if he takes the whole summer off.”
Kimmel addressed his suspension in his opening monologue on Tuesday, thanking his fellow late-night talk show hosts for supporting him after he was taken off the air over criticism about remarks he made about the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s killing.
Jimmy Kimmel made an emotional return to his late-night talk show on Tuesday, September 23, six days after ABC suspended the show indefinitely — and stars around the world are celebrating. Kimmel, 57, opened Tuesday’s return episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! by thanking his viewers, allies, fellow late-night talk show hosts and even his critics […]
“I’m happy to be here tonight with you. I’m not sure who had a weirder 48 hours: me or the CEO of Tylenol,” the comedian quipped. “It’s been overwhelming. I’ve heard from a lot of people over the last six days. I’ve hard from all the people in the last six days. Everyone I have ever known has reached out 10 or 11 times. Characters from my past, the guy who fired me from my first radio job in Seattle — where we are not airing tonight, by the way — his name is Larry.”
“You supported our show cared enough to do something about it to make your voices heard so that mine could be heard and I will never forget it,” he added, thanking fans and viewers.
Kimmel’s show was suspended indefinitely last week amid right-wing criticism over comments about Tyler Robinson, the suspect arrested and charged in connection with Kirk’s death on September 10.
“The MAGA Gang [is] desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said, prompting backlash from Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr. Things cascaded when Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcast Group, both of which own several ABC affiliate stations around the U.S., said they would not air the show.
Many stars were shocked after news broke that ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s eponymous talk show following the host’s comments about Charlie Kirk’s death. An ABC spokesperson confirmed to Us Weekly on Wednesday, September 17, that “Jimmy Kimmel Live! will be pre-empted indefinitely.” The news came in the wake of Kimmel’s remarks about Kirk’s accused murderer, […]
ABC’s parent organization, The Walt Disney Company, announced Kimmel’s return in a statement on Monday, September 22.
“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” the company said. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
Nexstar and Sinclair, however, confirmed this week that they would pre-empt the program on their stations.
