Audience Cheers Jimmy Kimmel’s Return Amid Charlie Kirk Controversy

Jimmy Kimmel made his late-night show return on Tuesday just one week after ABC suspended the comedian ‘indefinitely’ over remarks he made about the death of conservative activist, Charlie Kirk.

Fans lucky enough to nab a ticket to the taping shared their thoughts on Kimmel’s comeback as they filed out of the El Capitan Theatre on LA’s Hollywood Boulevard, where Jimmy Kimmel Live! has been filmed since 2003.

Several spoke exclusively to Daily Mail about the ‘unifying’ experience, with one confirming that Kimmel was visibly emotional during the one-hour episode.

‘To me it felt very unifying,’ one audience member said of Kimmel’s opening monologue. ‘He was just very gracious and he was just a champion for freedom of speech.’

They added : ‘I just think he did a great job.’

When asked if Jimmy ‘shed any tears,’ the audience member revealed: ‘Yes. Very much. He really spoke to me. He did. He was great.’

As for the apology Sinclair — the broadcasting company that owns ABC affiliate stations and is still refusing to air Jimmy Kimmel Live! — demanded, the audience member said that Kimmel did give an apology ‘of sorts’ but in his ‘typical fashion.’

A different audience member that spoke to Daily Mail provided further insight on Kimmel’s ‘fantastic’ monologue, where he addressed the ongoing controversy.

‘It was not a shadow of Jimmy Kimmel, which I think a lot of people were worried about,’ they shared, adding that Kimmel was not ‘bending a knee’ in any way. 

‘Jimmy was still Jimmy and addressed what he needed to address and also made it clear what he felt about the gravity of [this situation] for the whole country.’

The audience member said that Kimmel ‘really wanted [viewers] to understand’ that other late-night show hosts, like Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon, could be ‘on the [chopping block]’ next if something isn’t done to defend free speech.

But Kimmel’s opening monologue wasn’t all doom and gloom, as Daily Mail learned that the episode was a mix of ‘serious and laughs.’

‘That’s what the point of comedy is,’ the audience member told reporters. ‘People like Kimmel, what’s scary about [comedians] is that they speak truth to power and they throw sprinklings of humor in there t make it palatable.

They continued: ‘One of the best ways to deal with something that’s painful is to find a dumb joke about it, and that’s kind of what they do and that’s what’s scary about it.’

Just hours before his TV return, Kimmel returned to social media for the first time since his show was pulled from ABC’s lineup.

The 57-year-old host took to Instagram to post a tribute that many fans saw as a subtle statement on the controversy surrounding his program. 

‘Missing this guy today,’ Kimmel wrote alongside a photo of himself with legendary TV producer Norman Lear, who passed away at age 101 in December 2023.

 Lear, best known for creating groundbreaking sitcoms such as All in the Family and The Jeffersons, was a staunch defender of free speech and the First Amendment.

He was also famously on Richard Nixon’s ‘enemies list’ during his presidency from 1969 to 1974.

The post was Kimmel’s first public comment since ABC announced last week that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would be ‘preempted indefinitely’ in the wake of his controversial remarks about the death of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.