Jimmy Kimmel returned to late-night television after a nearly weeklong suspension and nearly broke down in tears, saying he wasn't trying to joke about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The Associated Press
It had been hyped as the monologue of all late-night opening monologues, and so Jimmy Kimmel and his team decided to make that the first joke.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!, back on ABC (or most of the American network’s affiliates, anyway) Tuesday night after a freedom of speech-shocking six-day suspension, began with a meta-montage of news footage about its own imminent return.
“We are in for a monologue that will be a marker in late-night show history,” an unseen commentator from Canada’s CTV News Channel said.
Cut to Kimmel and sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez in a monkey and banana costume, respectively, deciding to change.
After that cold open, Kimmel did indeed take a sober, serious approach to his opening monologue, nearly 20 minutes long if you include the standing ovations.
The 57-year-old former pin-up for Gen-X slackerdom, one-time host of The Man Show, teared up a number of times. He was passionate.
But Kimmel did not, crucially, apologize for anything he had said on his show in the wake of the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk – the politically motivated pretext for his removal last week.
Instead, the stubbly comedian offered this clarification: “It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man.”
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In his return to monologuing, Kimmel praised Kirk’s widow for forgiving her husband’s murderer and said he himself is a follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ (his middle name is Christian, after all).
But he mainly focused on freedom of speech – and spoke of meeting satirists from Russia and unnamed “countries in the Middle East” who had told him that they would be thrown in jail or worse for what he’s done on ABC for the past 23 years.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! returned to (some) airwaves Tuesday. In his opening monologue, Kimmel reflected on the importance of free speech.RANDY HOLMES/AFP/Getty Images
“Our freedom to speak is what they admire most about this country – and that’s something I’m embarrassed to say I took for granted until they pulled my friend Stephen [Colbert] off the air and tried to coerce the affiliates who run our show in the cities that you live in to take my show off the air,” he said.
“That’s not legal, that’s not American – that is un-American.”
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The “un-American” cancellation of Kimmel on Sinclair and Nexstar-owned ABC affiliates spilled across the border into Canada: In Quebec, Bell Fibe cable customers tuning into ABC could not watch Jimmy Kimmel Live! as the network feed in that province is owned by Nexstar, a representative of the telecom told The Globe and Mail. (Kimmel’s return was nevertheless viewable in simulcast on Citytv in la belle province and across the country.)
This part of what Kimmel said really stood out: “This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows you to have a show like this.”
Kimmel gets a hug from Guillermo Rodriguez.Randy Holmes/The Associated Press
Watching from a country that is un-American by virtue of not being part of the 50 – full stop! – United States of America, I cheered Kimmel – while at the same time knowing that it’s not really so bad to live in a place without a single late-night talk show.
The lack of interest (English-speaking) Canadians have in their own TV has its benefits: We get all the thrills of bear baiting without having to be the bear or the bait.
Kimmel’s speech was an opportunity to reflect on the exaggerated value of the late-night opening monologue to, you know, democracy.
Somewhere along the way this century, even as live viewership for late-night shows started to plummet, people started to take comedians’ opening monologues seriously – too seriously, perhaps.
In his historic monologue last night, which had more than 11 million views on YouTube and 5 million on Instagram by noon on Wednesday, Kimmel made a point of thanking the people “who don’t support my show and what I believe but support my right to share those beliefs anyway.”
Those he named included Ben Shapiro, Clay Travis, Candace Owens, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.
“I am so glad we have some solidarity of that from the right and left and from those in the middle like Joe Rogan,” he said.
After opening the Overton window like that, Kimmel seemed relieved to move on after the first commercial break – to a stilted bit with Robert De Niro playing the FCC chairman and a dull chat with Austin-based Hollywood star Glen Powell about his new Hulu series, Chad Powers (on Disney+ up here in un-America.)
Then Canadian singer Sarah McLachlan, who had made her support for freedom of speech clear without any monologues, sat at a piano and sang the title song from her new album, Better Broken. The lyrics seemed on point:
So I’ll pretend I didn’t cry
You pretend that you’re my saviour
We both remember what we want
To get us through the night.
Sarah McLachlan performed on Kimmel's show in Los Angeles on Tuesday.Randy Holmes/The Associated Press