Jimmy Kimmel’s show returned to television on September 23 after a week-long break and achieved its highest viewership ever, drawing an estimated 6.26 million viewers. This is especially notable because the show wasn’t available on stations in about 25% of the country. This was due to a dispute with Nexstar and Sinclair, two TV station groups that own ABC affiliates in many cities, including Seattle and Washington, D.C., and chose not to broadcast the show.
Despite fewer people watching traditional live TV, Jimmy Kimmel Live! drew a surprisingly large audience on Tuesday – about four times its average viewership from the 2024-2025 season. Incredibly, it even exceeded the 4.8 million who tuned in for the show’s premiere after the Super Bowl in 2003. While older viewers (over 50) made up the majority of the TV audience, Kimmel still attracted over 1 million viewers in the key 18-49 age group – five times the show’s average for that demo this spring. The episode also outperformed Stephen Colbert’s Late Show announcement in July, drawing more than double the viewers. Despite less pre-show promotion, Kimmel’s show managed to attract 2.41 million same-day viewers across all its affiliated stations.
Even before official ratings came out, there were signs that Jimmy Kimmel’s return would be a hit. A lengthy clip from his first monologue quickly gained popularity on YouTube, reaching almost one million views within an hour, ten million within twelve hours, and over fifteen million by Wednesday afternoon. This made it his most popular monologue clip ever on the platform. While YouTube views aren’t directly comparable to traditional TV ratings – YouTube counts a view after just a few seconds of watching – the clip’s rapid success indicated strong audience interest in seeing his comeback.
While today’s initial viewership numbers are significant, the audience size for Tuesday’s show will increase in the coming days. Nielsen will incorporate viewers who watched outside their homes, data from streaming platforms, and those who watched on Hulu. Because a surprisingly large number of people didn’t watch on traditional TV, the viewership numbers from Hulu are expected to be especially impactful.
Jimmy Kimmel’s shows will still face challenges for at least another night. Nexstar announced Wednesday they will continue to skip airing *JKL* while they talk with Disney executives. Sinclair also said Tuesday they’ll keep blocking Kimmel’s show, instead broadcasting their conservative news programs during that time. However, despite Donald Trump’s claims about low ratings, Kimmel’s show actually performed very well on Wednesday.
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2025-09-25 00:54