'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' Returns to the Air with Record Ratings

Sept. 24, 2025

LOS ANGELES — ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” returned to the air Tuesday night to a record rating despite blackouts at 66 ABC affiliates owned by Nexstar and Sinclair.

The episode drew 6.26 million viewers, based on preliminary Nielsen figures, marking the largest tune-in audience in the show’s 22-year history and more than three times higher than the show’s average for the second quarter of 2025, before Kimmel’s annual summer break when guest hosts sit behind his desk.

The new episode drew a 0.87 rating among adults 18-49 (equivalent to about 1.18 million viewers in that age group), its best numbers for a regularly scheduled episode in more than a decade or since March 2015.

According Nielsen, from April to June, which included the first week of Kimmel’s summer break, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” averaged 1.77 million viewers over seven days of viewing (not including streaming), including the Nexstar and Sinclair stations that are now holding back the show.

ABC also posted the first 28 minutes of Tuesday’s show to YouTube shortly after they aired; earning more than 26 million views — a record for a Kimmel monologue.

During his 18-minute monologue that opened the show, Kimmel was contrite about the remarks about the killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk that got him suspended last week. He said “it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don’t think there’s anything funny about it,” he said as he expressed gratitude for the wide-ranging support he had earned across the political spectrum.

“The president made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here get fired. Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke,” he added.