Jimmy Kimmel returns to host his show on Tuesday, Sept. 23, after ABC temporarily pulled "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" off the air.

Jimmy Kimmel came back with plenty of friends watching along from home.

The late-night comedian returned to his ABC talk show "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on Tuesday, Sept. 23, after almost a week off the air to a massive audience, as Americans tuned in to watch what might be the final chapter in a six-day cultural firestorm.

ABC revealed on Wednesday, Sept. 24, that 6.26 million viewers watched Kimmel return to his studio in Los Angeles after the network pulled his show from the air on Sept. 17. The number, based on Nielsen's preliminary figures, does not reflect streaming views.

The Disney-owned broadcaster said the episode earned a 0.87 rating among adults 18 to 49 years old, which makes it "the show’s highest regularly scheduled episode in over 10 years − since 3/12/15," per the news release. In the 2024-25 TV season, Nielsen reported "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" averaged 1.6 million viewers, according to The New York Times and NBC News.

Kimmel had been absent from ABC since his Sept. 16 episode, after the network and parent company Disney chose to "indefinitely" preempt the late-night comedy show after comments Kimmel made about the accused killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, and the reaction of conservatives to the events. Those comments angered many on the right and drew threats from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, ultimately launching a weeklong media controversy and frenzy over free speech and President Donald Trump's administration.

Kimmel managed the sharp increase in viewers despite his show not airing on any affiliates owned by Nexstar Media or Sinclair Broadcast Group, as both companies have chosen to continue to preempt the comedian.

That means 23% of the local ABC stations that usually air "Kimmel" at 11:35 p.m. on weeknights did not show his latest episode. Viewers in more than two dozen markets including Washington, D.C., St. Louis and Seattle were shown other programming during that time slot.

On YouTube, Kimmel's lengthy monologue addressing the events of the past week has already garnered 15.7 million views. Tuesday's full episode is also available for Hulu subscribers to stream, although it is hard to know how many viewers watched Kimmel this way, as streaming services do not a typically provide data about viewership for individual episodes of a show.

Jimmy Kimmel got the big ratings he promised Trump

Amid the fray caused by Kimmel's comments and ABC's decision to pull his show from the air "indefinitely" were comments from the right, the left, talking heads and Trump, who was quick to claim Kimmel was "fired" for poor ratings. In his lengthy monologue about his absence and return on Sept. 23, Kimmel also addressed Trump's suggestion that he doesn't have good ratings: "Well, I do tonight!"

"You almost have to feel sorry for him," Kimmel went on. "He tried his best to cancel me and instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show."

Kimmel's Sept. 23 ratings are up from his typical weekly draw on ABC. Late-night TV ratings are down overall as the genre faces competition from new media, but "Kimmel" is no worse off than his peers.

In fact, in the key 18-49-year-old demo that advertisers care most about, Kimmel leads among the three major shows on broadcast TV that air in his 11:35 p.m. timeslot, beating out "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" and "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." Kimmel averages 220,000 viewers in the demo, ahead of Colbert (219,000) and Fallon (157,000), according to LateNighter.com, which tracks late-night TV ratings.

In overall viewers, the recently canceled Colbert show remains the leader. In the second quarter of 2025, Colbert averaged 2.42 million viewers, while Kimmel averaged 1.77 million and Fallon averaged 1.19 million.

Contributing: KiMi Robinson, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jimmy Kimmel's return to ABC nets highest viewership in a decade

Reporting by Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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