Kimmel Reinstated, Returns to Massive Audience

ABC/Disney briefly suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! after Kimmel made controversial remarks imagining the killing of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk amid pressure from FCC Chair Brendan Carr; the network reversed the suspension after intensive discussions. Kimmel returned with a 28‑minute monologue defending free speech, attacking censorship and directly responding to President Trump's Truth Social denunciations by calling him an '80s movie‑style bully. The episode drew roughly 6.26–6.3 million linear viewers — the show's biggest TV audience in more than a decade — and the monologue went viral with tens of millions of online views, far above the program's typical ~1.4–1.8 million nightly audience. Some station groups, including Sinclair and Nexstar, preempted the show in about 20–23% of U.S. households while MAGA figures launched boycott and advertiser‑pressure campaigns, and fellow late‑night hosts and TV personalities publicly voiced support for Kimmel.