Jimmy Kimmel took the stage to speak to advertisers at the Disney Upfronts on Tuesday (May 12), where he addressed his temporary suspension from ABC and ongoing battles with President Trump.
“I didn’t think I’d see you guys again either!” he joked at the top of his speech, per Variety, before making a dig about the shelved season of The Bachelorette. “I’ve been through so much bull**** this year, it actually made me appreciate this bull****. You see, in order for ABC to pull you off the air, you have to throw a chair at your Mormon boyfriend.”
Kimmel’s suspension came in September 2025 after threats from FCC chair Brendan Carr, which led Nexstar, an affiliate network with dozens of local ABC channels, to announce it would preempt episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! due to comments he made on-air about the fallout of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. At the time, Trump demanded ABC fire the host.
The president and his wife, Melania Trump, again called for Kimmel’s removal last month after he joked that the first lady had the “glow of an expectant widow” two days before the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting.
“Yes, the President has tried to get me twice over the last six months,” Kimmel said. “That’s one way to look at it. Another way, you can also say I’ve generated unparalleled engagement across a variety of platforms.”
Kimmel touted his show’s numbers, saying, “Largely thanks to our partners in Washington, we are up 25%. It’s a good deal to have the numbers go up nowadays. With that said, if Johnny Carson woke up one day with my ratings, he had gone straight under the sink and took all the Drano.”
While his numbers are up, Kimmel admitted his battles with Trump “cost our company a lot of money this year… billions. It is very possible that no employee in the history of any company has cost their employer more than hiring me 24 years ago. Just from a purely mathematical standpoint, I was the worst personnel decision that the Disney Corporation ever made. Not even the captain of the Exxon Valdez did more damage.”
After joking that it would help if the audience chipped in, Kimmel sent his sidekick, Guillermo Rodriguez, out into the audience with a collection basket. All he received was $7 and a tennis ball.
He also took a shot at CBS for canceling The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, noting, “CBS is turning 11:35 into a leased time slot, ‘leased’ as in, ‘least likely to offend the President,’ with a rerun of Comics Unleashed from 2007 featuring Paula Poundstone and Andy Dick. Poor Stephen. It’s bad enough to lose your job. Imagine getting replaced by the owner of the Weather Channel.”
Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Weeknights, 11:35/10:35c, ABC
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