Jimmy Kimmel has returned to the airwaves after an episode was unexpectedly pulled from ABC’s late-night lineup last week.
Kimmel, 57, hosted a brand-new show on Monday, November 10, kicking off an ’80s-themed week with guests George Clooney, Mike Tyson and “Sailing” singer Christopher Cross.
The late-night host did not explain why ABC removed the Thursday, November 6, edition of Live! from its schedule. Kimmel made topical jokes about politics during his monologue and engaged in a breezy, upbeat conversation with Clooney, 64, who regaled the audience with funny stories about pranking Brad Pitt and filming an unreleased horror flick dubbed Grizzly II: Revenge circa 1983. Elsewhere on the show, Kimmel promoted his “Big Beautiful Food Bank” initiative providing food for people who depend upon SNAP benefits to get by.
Kimmel’s Thursday episode was initially scheduled to have David Duchovny, Joe Keery and Madison Beer as guests. Beer later took to her Instagram Stories to confirm the news she’d no longer be appearing, writing, “Due to unforeseen circumstances, @jimmykimmellive needed to reschedule my performance that was originally scheduled to air tonight to a later date.” She noted that her appearance would be rescheduled for a later date.
Instead, a past episode featuring Tessa Thompson, Daymon John and The Beths re-aired in its place. While no further details were given at the time, Entertainment Weekly later reported that the show was canceled due to a “personal matter” involving Kimmel.
The surprise cancellation came just one month after Kimmel was suspended following his on-air comments about Charlie Kirk’s alleged murderer, Tyler Robinson. At the time, a spokesperson for ABC confirmed to Us Weekly that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would be “pre-empted indefinitely.”
The decision to pull the show resulted in ABC facing a fair amount of backlash, with 400 A-list celebrities signing an open letter in support of bringing the comedian back to late night. Just six days off air, Disney, ABC’s parent company, announced that Kimmel would return to its regularly scheduled programming.
“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” the Walt Disney Company said in a statement. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”
Kimmel returned with a new episode on September 23, thanking viewers and fans for their support, calling it an “overwhelming” week.
“I’ve heard from a lot of people over the last six days. … Everyone I have ever known has reached out 10 or 11 times,” he said during his opening monologue. “Characters from my past, the guy who fired me from my first radio job in Seattle — where we are not airing tonight, by the way — his name is Larry.”
He continued, “You supported our show and cared enough to do something about it to make your voices heard so that mine could be heard, and I will never forget it.”
When Kimmel appeared as a guest on The Late Show Starring Stephen Colbert two days later, he admitted to thinking Live! was “over” forever. “I was like, ‘This is never coming back on the air,’” he recalled thinking. “That’s really what I thought.”
Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs on ABC weekdays at 11:35 p.m. ET.
