
The 57-year-old host appeared emotional as he gave a long speech at the start of the first Jimmy Kimmel Live! episode since the show was taken off the air last week. The break followed his comments about right-wing activist Kirk, who was shot and killed in Utah on September 10, and 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, the accused shooter.
At the start of Tuesdayās (23.09.25) episode, Kimmel said: āI do want to make something clear because itās important to me as a human, and that is you understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man.ā
After the audience clapped for him, the emotional host went on to say, āI donāt think thereās anything funny about it.ā
āI posted a message on Instagram on the day he was killed, sending love to his family and asking for compassion, and I meant it, I still do.
āNor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what ā it was obviously a deeply disturbed individual. That was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make, but I understand that to some, that felt either ill-timed or unclear, or maybe both.
āAnd for those who think I did point a finger, I get why youāre upset. If the situation was reversed, thereās a good chance Iād feel the same way.
āI have many friends and family members on the āother sideā, who I love and remain close to, even though we donāt agree on politics at all.
āBut I donāt think the murderer who shot Charlie Kirk represents anyone, this was a sick person who believed violence was a solution, and it isnāt ā ever!ā
He continued: āAnd also selfishly, I am a person who gets a lot of threats. I get many ugly and scary threats against my life, my wife, my kids, my co-workers, because of what I choose to say, and I know those threats donāt come from the kind of people on the right who I know and love.
āSo, thatās what I wanted to say on that subject.
āBut I donāt want to make this about me ā and I know this is what people say when they make things about them ā this show is not important.
āWhat is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.ā
Kimmel also thanked āeveryone who checked inā, including his āfellow late and night talk show hostsā, such as his āfriendā Stephen Colbert, 61, whose The Late Show programme has been axed by CBS, with the final episode to air in May 2026, and he stressed the importance of free speech.
He said: āIāve had the opportunity to meet and spend time with comedians and talk show hosts from countries like Russia, countries in the Middle East, who tell me they would get thrown in prison for making fun of those in power and worse than being thrown in prison.

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āThey know how lucky we are here. Our freedom to speak is what they admire most about this country.ā
Kimmel was suspended following the broadcast of his show on September 15 in which he talking about the killing, saying: āWe hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang [Make America Great Again] gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it. In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.ā
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