Jimmy Kimmel is set to deliver a “deeply personal” and “characteristically jovial” Christmas message by way of the U.K. network Channel 4 that will air on Christmas Day. Kimmel’s message is said to include the line, “From a fascism perspective, this has been a really good year.”
Kimmel will also reflect on his suspension from ABC in the wake of comments he made following the shooting death of Charlie Kirk. Others who have delivered the annual address include Edward Snowden and Brigitte Bardot.
Kimmel began his final episode of 2025 with a tearful monologue and a word of thanks to viewers who supported him this year.
“Thank you for joining us here at our home in beautiful Hollywood, California, for what is our final show of the year. And this one, this has been a strange year. It’s been a hard year, we’ve had some lows, we’ve had some highs. For me, maybe more than any year in my life. But from all of us — I’m crying already, I’m sorry,” he said. “Behalf of all of us at the show, I just want to say that we appreciate your support, you enthusiasm. But not just for watching, this year you literally pulled us out of a hole and we cannot thank you enough, personally.”
The “hole” is presumably a reference to the week he spent off the air.
““I know there are a lot harder jobs, but this is not an easy job to do and sometimes it feels like we’re spinning our wheels. You see so many awful and destructive acts, all this damage we inflict on ourselves on purpose, and it can make you feel crazy trying to wrap your head around these things that are so clearly wrong,” Kimmel continued. “You know, you grow up reading ‘Superman’ and you learn to value truth, justice and the American way, and then you start to realize — especially over the last year — you don’t know where that all went, you don’t know what ‘the American way’ even is anymore.”
“But when I hear from people that tell me that they watch our show and the shows that my friends and colleagues do on the other channels and that it makes them feel less crazy, it makes me feel less crazy, too. And I think that’s an important thing,” the comedian also said. “I also think it’s important that we as Americans let our friends in other countries who watch the show on YouTube, Instagram, Hulu, wherever, know that a lot of us are not OK with what is happening. There is still a lot more good in this country than bad and we hope that you will bear with us during this extended psychotic episode that we’re in the middle of.”
