Jimmy Kimmel is back on his late-night stage — and full of emotion.
After a nearly week-long suspension, the ABC star taped a new episode on Tuesday evening, and he spoke at length about the controversy that enveloped the show, according to audience members who spoke with CNN afterward.
There were several minutes of applause when Kimmel walked out on stage. The eruption of support was so loud “it was ear damaging to be honest,” Kevin Winhard said.
Then came Kimmel’s monologue, the comedian’s first public statement in nearly a week.
Last Wednesday, in a head-spinning move, Kimmel was sidelined by ABC shortly after the Trump administration official responsible for licensing ABC’s local stations, Brendan Carr, publicly pressured the company to punish the comedian.
Winhard and other audience members described Kimmel as emotional and direct.
“I’ve been to shows before, and honestly this one just felt different,” Kathy Hopkins said.
“You could tell they were being very careful about where they went with it,” Hopkins added.
Kimmel did make some jokes, of course, but he also addressed the uproar over his Sept. 15 commentary about the suspect in the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel specifically directed some remarks to Kirk’s widow Erika, one of the audience members told CNN.
There was a conservative outcry last week after Kimmel asserted that the “MAGA gang” was “desperately trying” to characterize the suspect “as anything other than one of them.” Kimmel also claimed that Trump loyalists were “doing everything they can to score political points” from the assassination.
After Kimmel’s comments were publicized by right-wing websites and TV shows, Carr called it “the sickest conduct possible” and suggested that the FCC could move to revoke ABC affiliate licenses.
Carr has since downplayed his role in the Kimmel drama, casting it as a dispute between local station owners and the national network.
But some of those local owners — like Nexstar, which is trying to merge with another big station group, Tegna — have pending business before the FCC, making them uniquely vulnerable to Carr’s public pressure.
Both Nexstar and Sinclair told ABC that they were going to preempt Kimmel’s show last Wednesday, which contributed to the network’s decision to yank the late-night show nationwide. Hollywood leaders were astonished; free speech groups were appalled; and the episode triggered a multi-day news cycle about free speech and corporate capitulation to political pressure.
Widespread criticism of the Kimmel suspension even led people to cancel their Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions, although the bottom line impact of the grassroots boycott is unclear.
Disney CEO Bob Iger and his leadership team sought to lower the proverbial temperature and get Kimmel back on the air, even as Trump celebrated what he wrongly called Kimmel’s firing by ABC.
Following discussions with Kimmel and his attorneys, Disney announced that the show would resume production on Tuesday.
The company gently chastised Kimmel in a statement, calling the aftermath of the Kirk killing an “emotional moment for our country” and saying “we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive.”
According to Hopkins, one of the audience members, Kimmel “wasn’t angry or anything” in his taped monologue. “He was very matter-of-fact.”
Tuesday’s episode will air on the East Coast at 11:35 p.m.
About an hour before the broadcast, Trump weighed in on ABC’s restoration of the show for the first time, commenting on Truth Social that “the White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled!”
Trump once again used his political platform to threaten ABC, saying of Kimmel, “He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution. I think we’re going to test ABC out on this.”
“Let’s see how we do,” Trump continued. “Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 million dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative.”
Disney agreed to pay Trump about $16 million last December to settle a defamation lawsuit that he had lodged against ABC.