Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel admitted during a podcast appearance on Wednesday that he may have lost half of his audience, or possibly even more, because of his decision to bash former President Donald Trump.
Kimmel discussed this during an appearance on the podcast “Naked Lunch” with host and “Everybody Loves Raymond” creator Phil Rosenthal. He explained that he couldn't, in good conscience, lay off Trump.
“Does ABC ever say to you, ‘Hey, could you not just attack this side and lay off a little bit? Cause we are gonna lose those people?’” Rosenthal asked.
“There was at one time, maybe, I don’t know, like right around the beginning of this whole like Trump thing where — ” Kimmel began, but was then interrupted by Rosenthal.
“This is now eight years ago?” he asked.
“Yeah. Something like that. Maybe not quite that long ago that that was like kind of hinted at. But I just said, ‘Listen, I get it. I mean, I don’t disagree. I mean, you’re right. I have lost half of my fans — maybe more than that,’” Kimmel replied.
Jimmy Kimmel admits that his relentless jokes about former President Donald Trump has cost him half of his fans — "maybe more than that." https://t.co/lYlzOGxriV pic.twitter.com/vHGVA9a5YL
— Newsmax (@newsmax) November 4, 2022
“And I get it, if that’s what they want to do, I just said, ‘Listen, if that’s what you wanna do, I understand and I don’t begrudge you for it, but I’m not going to do that. So, you know, if you want somebody else to host the show, then that’s fine. That’s okay with me. I’m just not gonna do it like that,’” he explained, adding that ABC had ultimately allowed him the freedom to make that choice.
“They knew I was serious. I mean, you know … I couldn’t live with myself,” he said.
“You’re the guys who make us feel like we’re not alone,” Rosenthal said.
“You know, I love this country, too,” Kimmel said. “I mean, you know, that flag doesn’t belong to them. This is ours. And when I see somebody coming in and ruining it, I’m gonna say something about it. That’s it. That’s as simple as that.”
Yeah, he loves this country, as long as everyone agrees with the woke mob.
