Dear Commons Community,

Newfound enthusiasm about Jimmy Kimmel’s show is not evaporating after just one monologue.

Kimmel’s Wednesday night follow-up to his Tuesday night comeback show quickly racked up millions of views on YouTube on Thursday morning, indicating that interest in Kimmel’s commentary remains way above normal.

By 2 p.m. ET on Thursday, the Wednesday night monologue had topped 5 million views, enough to rank as one of his most-watched videos of the year on YouTube.

Meanwhile, his emotional Tuesday night monologue has surpassed 20 million views on YouTube. That one already ranks as his most-watched monologue of all time on the platform.

Sinclair and Nexstar, the two major station groups that preempted the talk show earlier this month, are also allowed the show to return to their ABC-affiliated stations last night.

This means that Kimmel will be seen again in major cities like Washington, DC, Nashville, and Seattle, as well as several dozen other markets.

The reversal is a victory for Kimmel and ABC. 

On traditional television, Kimmel’s return episode scored at least 6.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen measurements. That figure will increase once other forms of viewing are factored in.

Kimmel alluded to his ratings performance on Wednesday night, and he mocked President Trump’s recent Truth Social post that bashed him.

“This was his [Trump] big closer: ‘Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad ratings,’” Kimmel said. “And he does know bad ratings: He has some of the worst ratings any president has ever had. On behalf of all of us, welcome to the crappy ratings club, Mr. President.”

Tony

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