While Jimmy Kimmel Live!‘s viewership has increased since the show returned from suspension last month, the late-night series has found even greater success on YouTube.
YouTube’s Head of Business Strategy and Operations, EMEA, Luca Forlin, announced during a presentation on Wednesday, October 8, at the MIA Market in Rome that Jimmy Kimmel Live!‘s recent TV ratings increase “dwarfed” its numbers on the online streaming site, according to Deadline.
“It was a huge moment, and he had a huge audience spike, but even that audience spike on linear paled in comparison to what YouTube gained in terms of audience,” Forlin stated.
Jimmy Kimmel‘s talk show was suspended by ABC’s parent company, Disney, last month, after media companies pulled the series from the air in response to comments the host made about Charlie Kirk‘s death on the show. Disney lifted the suspension less than a week later, and Jimmy Kimmel Live! returned to the small screen on September 23.
According to Deadline, the episode drew a total of 6.5 million live and same-day viewers combined. In comparison, Kimmel’s monologue from the return episode had garnered, as of Wednesday, over 22 million views on YouTube.
Kimmel’s monologue from the following night (September 24) also beat the return episode’s initial ratings, as it currently has over 8.6 million YouTube views.
Disney
“That multiplier effect – 4x, 5x, 6, 10x – is what we observe day-in, day-out on live streaming and live events,” Forlin stated.
For the show’s first few post-suspension episodes, some fans were only able to view the segments on YouTube, as the media companies Sinclair and Nexstar didn’t lift their affiliate preemptions until September 26.
Kimmel’s monologues have continued to gain millions of views on YouTube. As of Wednesday, his opener from the show’s Tuesday, October 7, episode has over 2.5 million online hits.
Earlier this week, Kimmel poked fun at President Donald Trump after ranking higher than him in a recent YouGov popularity poll. “You remember the guy who keeps saying I have no ratings? Well, that makes two of us,” he joked during his Monday, October 6, monologue, which currently has over 3.7 million YouTube views.
“They polled more than 1,000 people, and I lead Trump by 16 points. I’m at plus three, he’s at minus 13,” he added. “It’s nice, but considering the fact that I’m not a convicted felon, friend of Jeffrey Epstein, and I’ve never paid off a porn star, or sent a team of mass goons into a park to pull an old lady away from her grandchildren, I feel like my rating should be higher, maybe? At this point, finding a toenail in your salad has a seven-point lead over Donald Trump.”
Kimmel went on to share a statement from White House press spokesperson Anna Kelly, praising Trump’s 2024 presidential election results. “Over 77 million Americans showed up on Election Day to cast their ballots for President Donald J. Trump, who is delivering on his overwhelming mandate to put America First,” the statement read. “Jimmy Kimmel prays every night to garner a fraction of that support to keep his show on air after ratings dropped 64 percent last week. Sad!”
In response, Kimmel quipped, “You know what else is sad? That the President of the United States has a lower approval rating than Diddy and diarrhea. That’s what’s sad.”
Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Weeknights, 11:35 p.m. ET, ABC