Jimmy Kimmel’s rankings jumped to their highest in years together with his return to ABC’s airwaves

The much-anticipated episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” following the comic’s return from his suspension drew a broadcast viewers about 4 occasions bigger than common, in response to Nielsen rankings information. This was regardless of the late-night present being preempted by a couple of quarter of all ABC affiliate TV stations within the U.S. 

Tuesday’s present drew an estimated 6.26 million complete broadcast viewers, Disney mentioned in a information launch Wednesday, per numbers compiled by Nielsen, an viewers measurement agency. The information doesn’t embody those that watched the episode on streaming platforms.

For comparability, in response to numbers offered to CBS News by a Disney spokesperson, Kimmel’s present averaged 1.42 million broadcast viewers throughout its 2024-25 season — lower than 1 / 4 of what it noticed on Tuesday night time.

Tuesday’s broadcast additionally drew a 0.87 ranking within the coveted demographic of adults ages 18 to 49, Disney mentioned, the very best for a single episode of Kimmel’s present since March 2015. The present averaged a 0.13 ranking for that age group final season, Disney mentioned.

Kimmel’s monologue additionally drew greater than 26 million views on YouTube and different social platforms, in response to Disney, which owns ABC. In it, he confirmed a video clip of President Trump criticizing the present, saying it “had no ratings.”

The host responded: “Well, I do tonight.”

The late-night present was quickly preempted final week following feedback Kimmel made throughout a Sept. 15 monologue relating to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel mentioned on the time.

In a Sept. 17 interview, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr referred to as Kimmel’s remarks “some of the sickest conduct possible,” and mentioned there was a “path forward for suspension over this.” Within hours of Carr’s feedback, two main station house owners, Nexstar and Sinclair, introduced they had been preempting Kimmel’s present indefinitely from their associates, whereas ABC additionally introduced that it was “indefinitely” suspending the present.

Nexstar has a deal pending to buy fellow station operator Tegna for $6.2 billion, and wishes the FCC’s approval for it to undergo.  

While ABC introduced Monday that it had made the choice to deliver Kimmel again to the airwaves, each Nexstar and Sinclair mentioned this week that the present will proceed to be preempted indefinitely.

Nexstar mentioned it’s “continuing to evaluate the status” of the present. It operates 33 ABC associates, whereas Sinclair runs 38 ABC stations. According to Disney, the 2 media corporations account for ABC stations in about 23% of the U.S. market, together with in giant cities corresponding to Nashville and Seattle.

In his monologue Tuesday, whereas he didn’t difficulty a blanket apology over his feedback, Kimmel mentioned that “it’s important to me as a human, and that is, you understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.”

In a Sept. 17 Truth Social post following Kimmel’s suspension, Mr. Trump — who has railed in opposition to late-night hosts for years going again to his first administration, and has particularly criticized their rankings — wrote on Truth Social that “[t]he ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED.”

Before the present aired Tuesday, Mr. Trump once more took to social media to write down that “I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled!”

Aimee Picchi

contributed to this report.