President Donald Trump threatened ABC with legal action for allowing Jimmy Kimmel Live! back on the air, claiming he was told by the network that the show was "cancelled"—even though it was only suspended.
ABC announced it would end its suspension of the program just a week after Trump pushed to get host Jimmy Kimmel off the air following comments Kimmel made about the assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk.
ABC announced Kimmel's show would return Tuesday, September 23, having had internal discussions with Disney, which experienced significant backlash and a wave of subscriber cancellations in the wake of Kimmel's suspension.
In his opening monologue, Kimmel called out the government interference that led to his suspension and called out Trump directly, saying Trump wants him and the show's staff fired:
“This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.” ...
“And that’s something I’m embarrassed to say I took for granted until they pulled my friend Stephen [Colbert] off the air and tried to coerce the affiliates who run our show in the cities that you live in to take my show off the air. That’s not legal. That’s not American. That is un-American.” ...
"Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke. He was somehow able to squeeze Colbert out of CBS, then he turned his sights on me and now he’s openly rooting for NBC to fire Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers and the hundreds of Americans who work for their shows who don’t make millions of dollars.”
You can see Kimmel's monologue below.
- YouTube www.youtube.com
A furious Trump later took to Truth Social to complain now that "ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back," adding:
"The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his “talent” was never there. Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE."
"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."
"Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings."
You can see his post below.
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
Trump’s claim that Jimmy Kimmel’s audience is “gone” isn’t backed by the numbers.
In the second quarter, Kimmel averaged 1.77 million nightly viewers, putting him behind Late Show host Stephen Colbert (2.42 million) but ahead of NBC’s Jimmy Fallon (1.19 million), according to Late Nighter. The outlet also noted that Kimmel leads all late-night hosts in the key 18–49 demographic most prized by advertisers.
His latest attack also shows that he is brazenly attacking the First Amendment in plain sight—he was proud to do it before and is preparing to do it again.
Trump previously gloated about Kimmel's suspension and congratulated ABC "for finally having the courage to do what had to be done" and had called for Kimmel's firing back when it was announced that Stephen Colbert's show was ending. Trump also set his eyes on Kimmel's fellow late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers and called on NBC to take the "total losers" off the air.
Trump has since raised the idea that television broadcasters could lose their federal licenses over what he views as hostile coverage. He argued the FCC should revoke licenses, claiming many late-night hosts are “against me” and provide only negative press.
Just as he claimed in his threat to ABC that Kimmel "is an arm of the DNC," he referred to all late-night programs as "an arm of the Democrat Party.”
