“Jimmy Kimmel Live” came back on air Tuesday with 6.3 million viewers — the biggest audience ever for a regular episode of the show.
The series has only drawn a larger crowd twice before, during special Sunday episodes that followed the 2006 Super Bowl and the 2014 Oscars. Tuesday’s episode also marked a 343% jump from the last season’s average of 1.4 million viewers. Nielsen’s early Live + Same Day numbers show the total could have been even higher if the episode aired everywhere.
But Nexstar and Sinclair stations still blocked “Jimmy Kimmel Live” after Disney ended the suspension, so 23% of U.S. homes couldn’t watch. Among adults 18-49, the show earned a 0.87 rating — a 568% rise from last season’s 0.13 average and the best demo rating for a regular episode since 2015.
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During Tuesday’s show, Kimmel joked about the big audience his return would get. While the show was off for six days, Donald Trump, Fox News hosts and other critics claimed it gets “no ratings.” “Well, I do tonight!” Kimmel said in his monologue.
You almost have to feel sorry for [Trump]. He tried his best to cancel me. Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly. He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now.
Kimmel spent most of the monologue talking about free speech and thanking those who defended the First Amendment during his suspension.
Maybe most of all, I want to thank the people who don’t support my show and what I believe, but support my right to share those beliefs anyway. People I never would have imagined, like Ben Shapiro, Clay Travis, Candace Owens, Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul. Even my old pal Ted Cruz, who, believe it or not, said something very beautiful on my behalf. Even though I don’t agree with many of those people on most subjects, some of the things they say even make me want to throw up, it takes courage for them to speak out against this administration, and they did, and they deserve credit for it.
After mentioning his fellow late-night hosts who share his liberal views, he said
Source: Variety