On the latest episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the talk show host thanked President Donald Trump for helping the show hit record viewership numbers.
In his monologue on the Thursday, Sept. 25 episode, Kimmel took a moment to highlight how his brief suspension actually boosted his ratings, which Trump had repeatedly claimed were poor. "Our monologue from Tuesday night has more than 21 million views just on YouTube alone," Kimmel quipped. "And I want to say, we couldn't have done it without you Mr. President Trump."
Ever since Kimmel made it back to the air following his suspension, which arrived after he made comments about Charlie Kirk's death and Trump's reaction to it that many conservatives criticized, he has been relentless in his mockery of the President. "We are broadcasting to about 75 percent of the country from Los Angeles, California, tonight," Kimmel said.
He said it was "a tumultuous week" for him and his staff, and he noted that they were still being "pre-empted" in at least 60 cities across the country. Despite that, they managed to pull their second-highest-rated broadcast in the entire 23-year history of the show. In fact, the episode was watched by 6.2 million people live, a four-time increase from the typical statistic for an episode of the show.
In the immediate return of Kimmel, the President suggested that he couldn't believe that he was already back on the air. On the episode on Wednesday, Sept. 24, Kimmel joked, "You can’t believe they gave me my job back? I can’t believe we gave you your job back! We’re even." He also called out Trump's comments about his ratings during the Wednesday episode, highlighting that Trump has some of the worst approval ratings of any sitting U.S. president.
In his return episode on Tuesday, he highlighted that Trump said that he doesn't have good ratings. Kimmel simply said, "Well, I do tonight."
"You almost have to feel sorry for him. He tried his best to cancel me," said Kimmel. "Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly. He might have to release the Epstein files to distract us from this now."
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