Jimmy Kimmel Live! broke its own record on YouTube this week. Kimmel’s return monologue following the show’s suspension became his most-watched monologue ever, garnering almost 18 million views in less than 24 hours. On television, the episode drew 6.3 million viewers, despite not airing in 23 percent of U.S. households, and became Kimmel’s third-most-watched episode since the show began in 2003. Before Tuesday night’s monologue, Kimmel’s most-viewed monologue on YouTube was his 2020 remembrance for Kobe Bryant, followed by his announcement in 2017 of his son’s birth and health complications. Kimmel earned praise for his monologue, in which he extended empathy to Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika, while also skewering President Donald Trump and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, both of whom attempted to pressure ABC into canceling Kimmel’s program after he made what they claimed were jokes at Kirk’s expense. ABC responded by taking Kimmel’s show off-air indefinitely, which triggered a massive backlash from celebrities, politicians and members of the public that eventually saw Kimmel returned to his regular time slot.
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