Just as Jimmy Kimmel jokingly predicted, his late-night show saw quite an audience boost upon his return to ABC on Tuesday night after the network “indefinitely” preempted him last week.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! drew 6.26 million viewers on Tuesday night, per early live + same-day Nielsen data.
Consider that JKL averaged about 1.77M viewers in live + seven-day data in the second quarter of 2025, illustrating just how much the weeklong debacle over Kimmel’s comments last week about Charlie Kirk’s shooter drew national interest. The early data also doesn’t include streaming, so the total audience for Tuesday’s episode will likely increase once all is said and done.
It’s also worth noting that, given Nexstar and Sinclair are still preempting Kimmel, the episode was not available in many major markets representing about 23% of U.S. households.
Among adults 18-49, the episode earned a 0.87 rating, the highest for a regularly scheduled episode in more than 10 years.
Disney adds that, in addition to linear viewership, the opening monologue alone has garnered more than 26M views across YouTube and social platforms. Even this morning, just 12 hours after it aired, the monologue had already amassed more than 11M views, well on its way to becoming one of Kimmel’s most-watched monologues of all time.
The saga started a week ago,when ABC indefinitely preempted Jimmy Kimmel Live! following a furor around Kimmel’s comments about Kirk’s killer. The move came after FCC chairman Brendan Carr threatened ABC to “find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead” and said that the comedian’s comments were “some of the sickest conduct possible.” He also called on the local affiliates to take action as well.
On Monday, Carr tried to deny that it was a threat to pull licenses of ABC stations, insisting that “did not happen in any way, shape or form.”
Hours after Carr’s initial comments, local station group Nexstar revealed that it would “preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! for the foreseeable future” as it “strongly objects to recent comments made by Mr. Kimmel concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk.” It soon was followed by similar comments from rival station group Sinclair. Moments later, Disney made its own decision to pause the show.
Kimmel’s return Tuesday followed days of discussions between Disney and Kimmel as the noise around the suspension grew louder on both sides of the political aisle. Not only did Kimmel receive the support of his late-night peers, but celebrities from across the industry including Mark Ruffalo, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks spoke out against Disney’s decision.
Even some right-wing politicians such as Ted Cruz — the current Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, the body that has oversight over the FCC — warned against the government curtailing free speech in response to the Kimmel situation.
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