On the latest episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! (Thursday, Sept. 25), Jimmy Kimmel cheekily thanked Donald Trump for helping him hit record-breaking viewership.
“Our monologue from Tuesday night has more than 21 million views just on YouTube alone,” Kimmel joked. “And I want to say, we couldn’t have done it without you Mr. President Trump.”
Kimmel’s ratings surge comes on the heels of his suspension, which followed backlash over comments he made about Charlie Kirk’s death and Trump’s reaction to it. Since his return, he’s leaned into the feud, going after Trump in nearly every monologue. “We are broadcasting to about 75 percent of the country from Los Angeles, California, tonight,” he said, noting that despite being pre-empted in at least 60 cities, his show still pulled its second-highest-rated episode ever, with 6.2 million live viewers—four times the usual number.
Trump had expressed disbelief that Kimmel was back on the air so soon, prompting Kimmel to fire back on Wednesday’s episode: “You can’t believe they gave me my job back? I can’t believe we gave you your job back! We’re even.” He also jabbed at Trump’s digs about ratings by pointing out the former president’s historically low approval ratings.
Reflecting on the wild week, Kimmel added: “You almost have to feel sorry for him. 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.”
