Jimmy Kimmel is giving thanks to President Donald Trump after his latest spike in viewership.

The Jimmy Kimmel Live! host, 57, reacted to his show’s latest ratings surge during his Thursday, Sept. 25 monologue — offering a message of gratitude for Trump after he previously celebrated Live! being temporarily pulled by Disney’s ABC just a week prior.

After the show was pulled by ABC on Sept. 17 following Kimmel’s comments about Charlie Kirk’s killing, and after the Walt Disney Company brought it back on Tuesday, Sept. 23, Kimmel’s return episode averaged a whopping 6.26 million viewers via traditional television (per preliminary Nielsen ratings).

The number was three times greater than his average episode, while video of the monologue posted on the show’s official YouTube page brought in 15.9 million views in less than 24 hours. It has now been viewed on the platform 21.7 million times as of the morning of Friday, Sept. 26. And, according to Kimmel, Trump, 79, is partly to thank for it all.

“This has been a tumultuous week. Even though we are still being preempted in 60 American cities, on Tuesday, we had our second-highest rated show in almost 23 years on the air,” Kimmel said. “Our monologue from Tuesday night has more than 21 million views just on YouTube alone.”

“And I want to say, we couldn’t have done it without you, Mr. President. Thank you very much,” he joked.

Following the Trump nod, Kimmel joked that, “after the big boost,” he noticed other programs “take shots” at the president. He then shared an Antique Roadshow spoof, where an appraiser randomly took jabs at Trump while observing a piece of furniture (“And by the way, hey Donald Trump, go f— yourself”).

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Kimmel’s Thursday monologue also touched on his show’s return to Brooklyn next week, as he joked they were “on the move so the FCC can’t get us.” Live! will be airing from the Brooklyn Academy of Music from Monday, Sept. 29, through Friday, Oct. 3. Guests will include Emily Blunt, Spike Lee, Ryan Reynolds, Tom Hanks, Kumail Nanjiani, Bruce Springsteen, Stephen Colbert, and more.

The Kimmel suspension controversy began on Sept. 15 when the longtime host, who has been behind the series since 2003, addressed the fatal shooting of Kirk during a monologue. At the time, he mentioned “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.”

“In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving,” he added, before showing a clip of Trump being asked by a reporter how he was doing amid Kirk’s death. In response, Trump said “very good” before changing the subject to the construction of the new ballroom at the White House. “Yes, he’s at the fourth stage of grief: construction,” Kimmel joked.

Kimmel also addressed what he called the “horrible and monstrous” killing of Kirk in a social media post on Sept. 10.

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Two days after his Sept. 15 monologue, and after the FCC’s Brendan Carr voiced frustration with Kimmel’s comments, ABC temporarily pulled Kimmel from the air. Jimmy Kimmel Live! has since returned to ABC, with Disney sharing in a statement that the show’s return followed “thoughtful conversations with Jimmy.” Still, it remains preempted by Sinclair and Nexstar in their local markets.

Before the suspension, Nexstar announced plans to acquire Tegna, a rival broadcast company, for more than $6 billion. The deal would consolidate the local television landscape and put Nexstar in 80% of America’s TV-owning households — with the acquisition requiring final approval from the Trump-controlled and Carr-run FCC.

As for Trump, the president has been vocal about his dislike of Kimmel, first celebrating the move to pull him off the air and then threatening to “test ABC” amid his return. In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, the president wrote he “can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back.”

“A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings,” Trump, in part, wrote.

Responding to Trump saying that he had “no ratings” during his Tuesday monologue, Kimmel quipped, “Well, I do tonight.”

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