Jimmy Kimmel returned from summer break with President Donald Trump still firmly in his sights, opening his first show back with a blistering monologue just as a new report claimed “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” may be nearing its final curtain.
The 58-year-old host used Tuesday’s comeback monologue to unload on Trump after Page Six reported that Kimmel’s ABC contract is not expected to be extended.
ABC Entertainment rejected the claim. “This information is inaccurate – any reports about the future of the show at this point are purely speculative,” a network spokesperson said.
Kimmel’s representative did not directly deny the contract report and instead pointed back to ABC’s statement.
Back behind his desk, Kimmel opened by describing what the country looked like when he left for summer break in June.
“When I left for summer break in the middle of June, the country was a mess,” Kimmel began, ticking off the war with Iran, high gas prices, inflation, uncertainty about Mitch McConnell and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which he called “a big green slop hole.”
Then came the fake good news. “And now, only three months later, I am so pleased to report that thanks to your favorite president, DJ Jazzy Donald, every one of those problems has been solved,” Kimmel said. “We made America great again.”
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The studio audience booed, giving Kimmel a path into Trump’s own online victory lap.
“What? It said on Truth Social he made America great again,” Kimmel responded. “Wait, are you telling me the president of the United States had three full months and spent $20 million and couldn’t even get a pool cleaned?”
Kimmel turned the Reflecting Pool renovation into a punchline about U.S. power abroad.
“How are we supposed to win the war with Iran when we can’t even win the war against algae?” Kimmel asked. “For God’s sake, Trump’s pool numbers and poll numbers are at all-time lows. Only 33%.”
The Strait of Hormuz got the Blockbuster treatment. “At this point, Blockbuster Video has a better chance of reopening than the Strait of Hormuz,” he cracked.
Kimmel also put his own summer break next to Trump’s months in office, saying they both “accomplished nothing all summer long.”
“You know things are bad when a wave of exploding diarrhea washes over us, and everyone goes, ‘Oh yeah, I forgot about the diarrhea,’” he said.
Trump’s hair gave Kimmel another easy target.
The host said the only thing Trump seemed to “get done” was “his hair,” adding, “The leaves are changing color and so is the president’s head.”
“Is it possible to have a midlife crisis at 80 years old?” Kimmel wondered. “It’s like he’s aging in reverse. He’s our own little Benjamin Glutton.”
Trump’s weekend posting spree also made the monologue, with Kimmel pointing to a Green Lantern video, a fake Robert De Niro image and a clip of Trump changing a New Mexico sign to read “New America.”
“He’s crazier than ever,” Kimmel said. “It almost felt like he was welcoming me back to work. On Sunday alone, he posted 37 times.”
The New Mexico bit got its own escape hatch. “Listen, if there really was a New America, we’d all go there immediately,” Kimmel joked.
The host said one summer away gave Trump enough material for a “We Didn’t Start the Fire” parody song, then told viewers he would not sing it.
“You know, sometimes I feel like he waits until I’m on vacation to do the really dumb stuff,” Kimmel said.
The Trump roast arrived the same day Page Six, citing sources, reported that Kimmel’s final episode would air in May 2027 after 24 years on ABC.
“His contract is not getting extended,” one insider told the outlet.
Page Six’s sources did not blame the reported decision on Kimmel’s years of jabs at Trump. One insider claimed new Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro would not bend to pressure from Trump or his supporters.
“He’s not afraid of the administration… Josh isn’t folding,” the insider said.
Another ABC source pointed to money, saying, “[I]t wouldn’t have anything to do with Trump.”
D’Amaro has also reportedly been offering early-retirement packages to executives as Disney restructures and tries to lower expenses.
Kimmel’s latest contract cloud follows a bruising stretch with ABC and the Walt Disney Company, which owns the network.
On September 17, 2025, ABC and Disney suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” after conservative figures criticized Kimmel’s comments about the murder of right-wing activist and provocateur Charlie Kirk.
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA 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,” Kimmel said.
Before ABC pulled the show, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr threatened action against the network and independent stations carrying “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
The show returned on September 23 with 6.26 million viewers, Kimmel’s biggest audience in more than a decade.
Trump called for Kimmel’s firing again in April after the host joked that Melania Trump “had a glow like an expectant widow.”
After a gunman later opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, DC, Melania Trump wrote on X that “people like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.”
Trump called the joke a “call to violence” on Truth Social and wrote that “Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”
Kimmel later described the sketch as “a very light roast joke” about the Trumps’ 24-year age gap and denied that it had anything to do with violence.
“It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination, and they know that,” Kimmel said.
Disney sued the FCC in August, accusing the Trump administration of using the agency for a “retaliatory campaign” against ABC.
“Acting through the Federal Communications Commission, the Administration has waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts,” Disney alleged in the lawsuit.
TMZ reported that one source claimed Kimmel’s staff had heard chatter about him pitching other shows and podcasts around Hollywood.