Jimmy Kimmel Live! is in the middle of its first full week of shows since its host was unceremoniously suspended by ABC over on-air comments, and he and fellow embattled last night host Stephen Colbert extended their bromance by guesting on each other’s talk shows. While sitting on the Late NIght couch, Kimmel gave a very detailed breakdown of the unpredictable chaos that went down the afternoon he was suspended, including the undeniably adorable way one of his kids reacted. (The other kid’s reaction? Slightly less wholesome.)
The way he tells it, the timing of ABC’s decision couldn’t have happened at a more awkward time, as the guests were en route to the studio, where the seats were already filled up with ready and eager audience members. As such, the studio had to be emptied, and Kimmel & Co. had to vacate posthaste. He notes that it didn’t help anyone’s stress levels to be followed back to their home by two helicopters.
This is when Kimmel was able to touch base with his kids about the situation, which is where things got overtly adorable. Here’s how he explained it, combined with Colbert's own reaction.
- KIMMEL: We get to the house, and we’re shaking. The kids are up. I got two kids. And our daughter, who’s 11 years old, says, ‘I can sell my Labubus.’ It was actually very sweet.
- COLBERT: Oh, that’s lovely.
I'm pretty sure that comment would have broken me down into a sobbing husk of a person, especially while still in the thick of the drama and not knowing exactly what the future would look like. At that point, Kimmel had yet to receive waves and waves of support from fellow celebs and late night hosts, so his own emotions were running high.
Which is precisely the point when a child's extremely selfless comments are most effective. At one point when I was facing my own financial problems, one of my daughtered offered to start selling lemonade in the neighborhood to help out, and it meant the world to me to see that empathy on display.
Plus, Labubus are expensive as all hell, and the resale value can get exorbitant, so Kimmel's daughter could have probably paid off the mortgage and funded a family vacation by selling off the lucrative collectables. (Slight hyperbole, but even South Park ripped on how pricy the toys are.)
Jimmy Kimmel's son had a slightly different reaction to the news than his sister did, and while entertaining, didn't make me nearly as tearful.
- KIMMEL: Our son just got naked and started running around the house.
- COLBERT: Also lovely.
If that's how he reacted when his dad got suspended, I can't imagine what kind of response he gave upon learning that the talk show was going back into production.
In his first post-supension episode, Jimmy Kimmel won over audiences with a heartfelt monologue, and even though the numbers understandably dropped in a big way soon after, that first episode drew some of the biggest ratings of the talk show's existence. So for now, Kimmel doesn't yet need to sell off any of his kids' toys to stay afloat. But the future is always a mystery.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Late Show will continue their current seasons on the 2025 TV schedule every weeknight (save for Fridays), airing respectively on ABC and CBS, starting at 11:35 p.m. ET.
