Jimmy Kimmel Thanks All of America, Especially Ted Cruz, for His Defiant Return

When the Federal Communications Commission becomes an enemy of the First Amendment, it’s a transgression so egregious and powerful that it can turn Jimmy Kimmel and Ted Cruz into almost-friends.

Over the last five days, Americans from across the fiercely divided political landscape protested the unconstitutional actions of FCC chair and Project 2025 co-author Brendan Carr, who briefly knocked Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air by publicly threatening to revoke the broadcasting licenses of local ABC affiliates that carried the show. While Jimmy Kimmel Live! still isn’t airing on ABC channels owned by Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair Broadcasting Group, who publicly condemned Kimmel and pledged to pre-empt his show following Carr’s threats on a right-wing podcast last Wednesday, Kimmel is back on TV and streaming for millions of Americans to the begrudging satisfaction of his right-wing critics, who now just want to see him canceled for the right reasons.

In his tearful opening monologue during tonight’s triumphant return of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Kimmel thanked all of his fellow Americans who spoke out against Carr and the FCC following his unjust suspension, telling his countrymen, “You made your voices heard so mine could be heard.”

Kimmel especially wanted to thank one particular patriot, whose nasally criticism of Carr legitimized the pushback against the FCC as a bipartisan issue. Ted Cruz, take a bow — but don’t stay down there too long, or you’ll just go back to kissing Trump’s ass.

“Maybe most of all, I want to thank the people who don’t support my show and what I believe, but support my right to share those beliefs anyway,” Kimmel said of the swell of outrage that hit the FCC following Carr’s threats. Along with Cruz, conservative figures such as Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens and Mitch McConnell all expressed disapproval for how Carr used his office to publicly intimidate broadcasters into silencing a prominent critic of the President.

Kimmel played a clip of Cruz criticizing Carr’s move to pressure ABC affiliates into censoring Kimmel on his podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz, in which the Republican Senator from Texas said that he despises Kimmel’s comments and would celebrate the late-night host’s dismissal, if it wasn’t a brazen act of government censorship. “Let me tell you, if the government gets in the business of saying, ‘We don’t like what you, the media, have said, we’re going to ban you from the airwaves if you don’t say what we like,’ That will end up bad for conservatives,” Cruz opined.

“I don’t think I’ve ever said this before, but Ted Cruz is right,” Kimmel said of the comments from Cruz. “It affects all of us, including him! I mean, think about it: If Ted Cruz can’t speak freely, then he can’t cast spells on the Smurfs!”