Jimmy Kimmel took a playful shot at a Seattle radio station at the top of his monologue on Tuesday night, as he returned to late-night television after a nearly weeklong suspension.
“I’ve heard from all the people in the world over the last six days,” Kimmel said after minutes-long applause and rounds of cheering.
That included “the guy who fired me from my first radio job in Seattle, where we are not airing tonight by the way,” Kimmel said.
Sinclair Broadcast Group, including Seattle’s KOMO, said it wouldn’t air the return of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on its ABC affiliate stations.
Kimmel was a sidekick on 102.5 KZOK FM’s morning show when he was 22 years old, the late-night host said in a 2015 interview with Entertainment Weekly. He was making $384 a week, but was given the ax after he secretly taped meetings with the program director and played them back on air.
The comedian said the man, “Larry,” tried to force him to do a bit called “Jobs for Donuts,” where “people would call in with a joke and I would give them donuts.” The idea did not go over well with Kimmel, who said he made fun of his boss for suggesting the idea.
During his time at KZOK, he and Kent Voss also recorded a song lampooning the then-owner of the Mariners, George Argyros, leading the team to pull about $8,000 worth of advertising from the station, according to its then-program director.
Kimmel thanked his former Seattle boss and everyone who checked in on him.
As he continued his highly anticipated monologue, Kimmel said he wasn’t trying to joke about the killing of Charlie Kirk and wasn’t trying to blame any specific group for the actions of Tyler Robinson, the man accused of the killing, who Kimmel said was an “obviously a deeply disturbed individual.”
ABC suspended Kimmel’s show last Wednesday after his remarks on the aftermath of Kirk’s murder on the Utah Valley University Campus prompted pressure from Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr and companies such as Sinclair that own some of the network’s affiliates.
His show was brought back to the network after Disney, ABC’s parent company, received backlash.
Kimmel went on to criticize the ABC affiliates, like Seattle’s, who took his show off air. Nexstar, like Sinclair, ordered their outlets not to show Kimmel on Tuesday.
Nexstar Media Group, which operates 23 ABC affiliates, is trying to buy Tegna, which owns KING 5.
