Last Night Was The Night That Jimmy Kimmel Became President

By Jason Tabrys | September 24, 2025 | 11:31am

Screenshot via Jimmy Kimmel Live!

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Last Night Was The Night That Jimmy Kimmel Became President

It’s absurd that we have late-night comedians offering television’s most sober and full-throated condemnations of the Trump administration’s obvious pressure campaign against free speech and journalism. But when the risk-averse and access-dependent say nothing, someone has to fill the void. Last night, that someone was Jimmy Kimmel, meeting an impossible moment with incredible precision.

You know what brought us to the moment before this moment – Kimmel’s remarks on the MAGA response to Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the following (FCC head and Trump lauded) benching by two major affiliate groups and removal from the air. How ABC/Disney and Kimmel got back together is a bit more a mystery.

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I assumed these two were headed for a divorce. The dust kicked up by this doesn’t obscure the fact that Kimmel is the host of a show down in the traditional ratings in a genre down in revenue over the last few years. With no guarantee that this kind of conflict wouldn’t pop up again with the Trump administration sporting a hard-on for Kimmel, wasn’t it easier to just move on, allowing the host to take his (substantial) YouTube audience with him and find a new platform?

It’s unknown when the wave of anger from consumers, stockholders, the entertainment industry, and a broad mix of influential media personalities impacted the calculus (Candace Owens and Jon Stewart on the same side of an issue level of broad). But at some point, it made more financial sense for ABC/Disney to bring Kimmel back, even with nearly 25 percent of affiliates keeping the show off their air and the threat of further administration tussles still looming (and teased before Kimmel’s return aired).

The path forward for ABC/Disney with those affiliates is a new mystery with a lot of complex twists and turns covered here by Deadline. Kimmel’s path forward is clear – there’s no leash on him. No fear.

Tuesday’s show wasn’t a blizzard of blistering jokes about Trump and his FCC toady, Brendan Carr (though there was plenty of that). As much as a non-stop showing of comedic strength would have felt good, Kimmel was more prone to be sly and substantial than savage. More human than humorist at specific points – an uncomfortable place for a late-night host, which showed as Kimmel occasionally tossed out a flutter of a joke to rebalance in the more serious moments.

To be sure, Kimmel saw that it was important to get some things off his chest and be known, as he has before in moments of personal family jeopardy and civic worry. He allowed us to hear his voice crack when he pushed back on characterizations of him as someone who would make light of political violence, reframing his intent before showing deference to people who were offended by the timing and turn of his phrases.

When it came time to talk about the ongoing threat to the First Amendment, Kimmel knew we needed someone with skin in the game to contextualize the danger that comes from capitulation to Trump as he moves to stifle dissent.

At the height of this uncommon but vital monologue, Kimmel made it a point to reframe the conversation. Trump’s war on free speech isn’t only about Jimmy Kimmel Live!, it’s about the clear divider between countries that have shows which freely mock and question the ruling class and ones that don’t. Countries that have curious and bold journalists and those that have only stenographers and loyalists.

Nudging Kimmel off the air wasn’t just about silencing his free speech; it was about illuminating a nightmare of lost careers and big consequences for anyone who dares think about taking up the fight against autocracy. The great chilling, a scare tactic that Kimmel pushed back into the shadows for this brief moment of defiance which was made possible by a lot of people.

Who knows what will come next, but last night, Jimmy Kimmel revealed vulnerability, empathy, fire, and patriotism – traits we usually look for (to no avail) in presidents and political leaders who often reveal themselves to be nothing more than brainbroke tyrants and follow-along fundraisers. That this display comes from a late-night comedian who used to host The Man Show is just a quirk of this weird fucking reality.