The “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” writers’ room is not taking threats from President Donald Trump sitting down.
On his much-loved podcast “Keep It!” on Tuesday, Louis Virtel, a writer on the late-night show since 2020, who’s also known for a memorable “Jeopardy!” run and writing stints with the Oscars and Emmys, weighed in on the president’s apparent glee at Jimmy Kimmel’s six-day suspension from ABC, saying that Trump’s “priorities are so messed up.”
Being political in late night is nothing new — Trump’s response is.
“It always bothers me when people say, ‘Oh, late night is so political now.’ If you watch Johnny Carson, there’s definitely jokes about every sitting president or whatever. I think the difference is we are just acutely aware of what the president thinks of these late-night hosts in a way that we have never been before,” Virtel said in conversation with “Hacks” writer Guy Branum. “Imagine if every day George H.W. Bush was like, ‘And you know who pissed me off today? Arsenio.’”
He continued: “The priorities are so messed up and it so directly gets to him and he loves to veil it in saying like, ‘Oh, late night is low rated,’ or, ‘These people have no talent.’ He’s the one who is constantly bringing up every day how important these people’s speech is.”
Virtel also expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support for Kimmel and his staffers through the suspension. “Luckily the rest of the world reacted in kind so fast that they got to be outraged while we got to be deeply numb,” he said of his colleagues’ shock at the decision. “I am so, so thankful for that.”
Ahead of Kimmel’s return to ABC on Tuesday after being pulled off the air last week for a monologue joke about Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer, Trump characteristically denounced the move from the Disney-owned network and slammed the host as talentless.
Writing on his Truth Social, the president also incorrectly stated that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was canceled, when ABC had only suspended the program and sources have told TheWrap from the start that the studio intended to bring Kimmel back after tensions cooled.
Trump also threatened ABC again on Tuesday, citing his $16 million defamation settlement with the network in December 2024.
“[Kimmel] is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution,” Trump wrote. “I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad ratings.”
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!” instead returned Tuesday to its highest ratings in years, with 6.3 million broadcast viewers, the program’s highest-rated regularly scheduled episode in a decade. Kimmel’s monologue also hit 26 million views across YouTube and social — at the time of publishing, YouTube alone hit 20.5 million views.
This notable viewership came even though the series wasn’t shown in 23% of U.S. TV households. Following ABC’s announcement it would be putting Kimmel back on the air, Sinclair and Nexstar, which own 39 and 20 ABC affiliate stations, respectively, said they would continue to preempt the late night show indefinitely as “productive” talks with Disney continue.
For Virtel’s full breakdown of what it was like in the “Kimmel” writers’ room this week, tune in to the full episode of Tuesday’s “Keep It” here.
