Just as Jimmy Kimmel predicted it jokingly, his late evening show saw an entire public increase when he returned to ABC on Tuesday evening after the network “indefinitely” pre -empted last week.
Jimmy Kimmel live DREW 6.26 million viewers Tuesday evening, according to data from Nielsen live and the same day the same day.
Consider that Frosty On average about 1.77 million viewers in live data + seven days in the second quarter of 2025, illustrating how the one week’s debacle on Kimmel’s comments last week on Charlie Kirk’s shooter aroused national interest. The first data do not include streaming either, so the total public of the Tuesday episode will probably increase once everything is said and done.
It should also be noted that, since Nexstar and Sinclair still precede Kimmel, the episode was not even available on many major markets representing around 23% of American households.
Among the adults 18-49, the episode obtained a note of 0.87, which is the highest for a regularly planned episode in more than 10 years.
Disney adds that, in addition to the linear hearing, the opening monologue alone has collected more than 26 million views on YouTube and social platforms. Even this morning, only 12 hours after its broadcast, the monologue had already accumulated more than 11 million views, well on the way to become one of Kimmel’s most watched monologues of all time.
The saga started a week ago when ABC has indefinitely preempted Jimmy Kimmel Live! After a fury around Kimmel’s comments on Charlie Kirk’s killer. This decision came after the president of the FCC, Brendan Carr, threatened ABC to “find ways to change driving, to take measures, frankly, on Kimmel, or there will be additional work for the FCC to come” and said that the comments of the actor were “part of the driving as much as possible”. He also called on local affiliates to act too.
On Monday, Carr tried to deny that it was a threat to trace the licenses of the ABC stations, insisting that “did not happen in any way, form or form”.
A few hours after the first comments of Carr, the group of the local station Nexstar revealed that it would be pre -empt Jimmy Kimmel Live! In the foreseeable future “because he” strongly opposes recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the murder of Charlie Kirk “. He was quickly followed by similar comments from the Rival Sinclair group.
Kimmel’s return Tuesday followed the days of discussions between Disney and Kimmel while the noise around the suspension was stronger on both sides of the political aisle. Not only Kimmel received the support of his end of the evening peers, but celebrities from all over the industry, including Mark Ruffalo, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, Disney’s decision expressed.
Even certain right -wing politicians such as Ted Cruz – the current chairman of the Senatorial Commerce Committee, Science and Transport, the organization which has the surveillance of the FCC – warned the government of freedom of expression in response to Kimmel’s situation.
