Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday night welcomed to his show his “favorite guy from all of television,” late-night icon David Letterman.
Letterman in turn had high praise for the Jimmy Kimmel Live! front man.
“People are aware of the fact that you are the leader of the resistance…?” Letterman rhetorically asked Kimmel as he sat down, eliciting cheers from the studio audience.
“Speaking of leaders…,” Letterman segued, “and this is irrespective of party or political ideology…. If the leader of the free world is a fool, the leader of the free world should expect and examine every bit of ridicule he receives.”
Letterman of course was alluding to President Donald Trump, who has trained his (and the FCC’s) crosshairs on Kimmel pretty steadily since his second term began. (This was Letterman’s first visit to Jimmy Kimmel Live! since the ABC talker got pulled off the air in the wake of FCC-instigated pressure from affiliates, stemming from remarks Kimmel made about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.)
After Letterman briefly touched on Kimmel’s brand-new contract extension—”Another year of twisting those folks at Disney, good for you!”—Kimmel asked the late-night legend if he misses having a nightly forum during these unprecedented times.
“No, I am so glad to be out from under this mess,” Letterman said. After all, he noted, Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers “do such a masterful job of defending democracy.
“Thank God for you, thank God for others, SNL and everybody else…,” Letterman asserted. “I think it’s the way things need to be in a democracy that’s seemingly this crippled.”
Letterman last sat for a late-night network interview in November 2023, returning to his old studio for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. However, he has popped up a couple of times since then. In February, he crashed Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show monologue to celebrate his former bandleader, Paul Shaffer, filling in for The Roots. (The surprise walk-out was Letterman’s first visit to The Tonight Show since Johnny Carson retired in 1992.) Letterman also guested on John Mulaney’s Netflix series Everybody’s in LA and Everybody’s Live in May 2024 and April 2025.
Letterman now has visited Kimmel’s show a total of six times since 2012.Â
Letterman is promoting the new season of his Netflix talk series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. Following a special installment with Adam Sandler released on December 1, the show returns Tuesday, December 16 with guests Michael B. Jordan, MrBeast, and Jason Bateman.
Watch Kimmel’s full sit-down with Letterman at the top of this post.
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Perhaps the “resistance” is what is making viewers flee Late Night Television. Time to move on from all of the President Trump hate. It obviously is NOT working. Jimmy’s wife ought to host the show since she is the scribe that writes his “jokes.”
No one likes your Dear Toddler Drumpf, bitch! And more and more people are growing to despise him, what with him shitting all over the economy and their health care, because he wants to!
You can bitch and complain all you want about how mean the late night hosts are to that fat fuck treason baby of yours! It doesn’t change the fact that they’re right about him!
Don’t like it? Eat shit, bitch hole!
Two multi-millionaire (rich) middle and elderly aged men sit down and talk on Television about how “Democracy” is at stake. Please, “Cry Wolf” some more. The show used to be good. Jimmy’s wife is the problem! He has no ballz or spine.
Actually, you shouldn’t have said that, because it makes you look so whinny and stupid!
Nice “whinny,” dumb-dumb.
Whinny and whiny are both acceptable! Don’t spread your illiterate ignorance around here and claim you’re a genius!
Nope they’re not, stupid.
In 1986, if you told 18-year-old Letterman uberfan Jimmy Kimmel that not only would he get to know Dave but also hug him 40 years later on his own network late night show, I’m sure he wouldn’t believe you. Mostly because of the hug.