Late night's latest roller coaster ride has seemingly already come to an end, at least until the next massive drop gets revealed, with Jimmy Kimmel Live! returning to ABC less than a full week after the network suspended Kimmel and pulled his talk show off the air. Much about the ordeal has been shocking to both audiences and those in Hollywood, but it's not so shocking that many of Kimmel's supporters shared love for the comedian to celebrate his return, including famed friends such as Jennifer Aniston and Ben Stiller.
But let's start off with one of the more unexpected, and yet totally logical and on point, reactions to Kimmel taking the late night spotlight back, from none other than Monica Lewinsky. She knows a thing or two about making headlines in relation to controversial situations involving a current president. As she shared on Instagram:
Welcome back, kimmel… ❤️
Gotta love that positivity, not to mention how far Lewinsky has come in her life and career since the '90s.
Jennifer Aniston shared Jimmy Kimmel Live!'s first behind-the-scenes pic in a week, while Simon Pegg took to Instagram Stories sharing a video the late night staple posted of other news anchors talking about his return.
Similar to the outpouring of positivity and kind messages accompanying his first public post since the suspension, lots of celebs were in full support of Kimmel getting back into the flow of things, and praising him and the rest of the show's team for handling it all with poise and as much respect as one could hope for.
Check out some of those reactions below from stars like Walton Goggins and Kimmel's friendly late night rival Stephen Colbert, who received quite a bit of support from Kimmel after his own network-related issues. (I.e. The Late Show getting canceled altogether.)
- BEN STILLER: What a brilliant monologue from Jimmy Kimmel.
- WALTON GOGGINS: Go get em Jimmy…. You Redwood you 🌲🌲🌲
- THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT: Welcome back, brother! ❤️
- KATE FLANNERY: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
- CHRIS DAUGHTRY: 🙌🙌🙌🙌
Comedian Deon Cole brought up the mega-kerfuffle with Conan O'Brien with his own response, as seen below, along with several other celebs' reactions.
- DEON COLE: Been thru this with Conan and I must say VERY WELL DONE!!! Congrats.
- DAVE BAUTISTA: ❤️
- LAURA BENANTI: 🙌🙌🙌
- MICHELLE VISAGE: YESSSSSSS
- ELIZABETH PERKINS: Thank you thank you!
- MELANIE GRIFFITH: ❤️❤️❤️❤️
In the immediate aftermath of the suspension, a lot of fans reportedly took it upon themselves to cancel Disney+ and Hulu in protest. While the exact changes in customer numbers will likely always be a mystery to audiences, Disney's stock did falter in the aftermath, and the fact that ABC's reversed the suspension so quickly has caused many to think that all the sub cancellations had an impact behind the scenes.
Jimmy Kimmel surprised audiences by talking to Robert De Niro during the opening monologue, as well as thanking his sometimes rival Ted Cruz for speaking up. The host got a bit choked up when addressing how the wife of Charlie Kirk has handled things in the aftermath of his murder. But after the monologue, the show continued without making the suspension a sticking point, with Glen Powell promoting Chad Powers and Sarah McLachlan
Though it's obvious not everyone is going to be on the same side here, the majority of non-hyperbolic responses online seem to be positive in nature, and even some who don't agree with Kimmel's politics at all were willing to offer olive branches to say that it was a respectful return.
For the foreseeable future, Jimmy Kimmel Live! is back to airing weeknights on ABC at 11:35 p.m. ET.
