President Donald Trump’s try to make use of the federal authorities to suppress the speech of comic Jimmy Kimmel has backfired spectacularly after hundreds of thousands tuned in for the late-night host’s triumphant return to the airwaves.
“You almost have to feel sorry for [Trump]. He tried, did 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 mentioned.
Kimmel’s Tuesday evening monologue acquired greater than 9 million views on YouTube within the first 10 hours it was out there. That’s way over the standard Kimmel monologue on YouTube.
Google searches for Kimmel’s monologue spiked Tuesday evening and into Wednesday morning, probably representing a whole bunch of hundreds of searches for his content material.
Whereas broadcast tv scores aren’t out there on the time of this writing, they’re positive to be excessive—and opposite to Trump’s claims when ABC took Kimmel off air, he was the highest-rated program in the important thing 18-49 demographic within the second quarter of 2025.
California Rep. Robert Garcia, the highest Democrat on the Home Oversight Committee, praised the host. “Jimmy Kimmel made the country proud. He stood up for free speech, called out Trump, and defended the First Amendment,” he wrote.
Earlier than Kimmel returned, Trump posted on social media, whining in regards to the return.
A protestor holds an indication outdoors El Capitan Leisure Centre, the place the late-night present “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is staged, on Sept. 18 in Los Angeles.
Not all of America noticed Kimmel’s return on their native tv stations, nonetheless. Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar Media Group, who’re each aligned with the correct, are refusing to air this system. By doing so, they’ve proven themselves to be keen instruments of the Trump administration’s campaign towards free speech.
However the knowledge from YouTube and on-line searches are a testomony to the eroding capacity of gatekeepers like Sinclair and Nexstar to manage what individuals see. Individuals who couldn’t watch Kimmel’s program on Tuesday evening—like these served by WJLA, the Sinclair station within the Washington, D.C., market—can watch your complete monologue or clips of it on-line.
Disney/ABC confronted monumental backlash from the general public, unions, actors and comedians for his or her choice to censor Kimmel. Financially, Disney confronted the prospect of individuals canceling their subscriptions to Disney+ and Hulu simply as the corporate was reportedly planning a value hike.
The assault on Kimmel was an try by the Republican-led authorities to quash speech that it didn’t like, operating immediately counter to the First Modification. For now, that motion has totally failed, and hundreds of thousands have seen a comic unrepentantly mock the president of the USA as soon as once more.
Precisely correctly.
