Jimmy Kimmel marked a major milestone Tuesday night, opening the 4,000th episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! with a pointed reminder that his show very nearly didn’t make it there.
“We’ve done 4,000 of these,” Kimmel told his audience to cheers and applause. “Which is a lot of shows. According to the White House, it’s too many shows.”
Kimmel noted that Jimmy Kimmel Live! premiered after the Super Bowl in January 2003, acknowledging that there were those then who doubted the show would last.
Then he turned to a more recent threat to its longevity.
“There are even those who used the regulatory might of the FCC to unconstitutionally try to make sure we didn’t last this long,” Kimmel said. “But we did it the hard way, Brendan! We are still here.”
The “hard way” line was a direct callback to FCC chairman Brendan Carr, who last September publicly pressured ABC and its affiliates to take action against Kimmel, saying, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” Hours later, ABC pulled Kimmel off the air. He was reinstated less than a week later amid a public backlash, returning to the highest ratings of his career.
Watch Kimmel’s complete remarks at the top of this post.
