Democrats weren’t the only big winners Tuesday night.
Jimmy Kimmel’s Election Night monologue has become his most-viewed monologue in more than a year, racking up more than 14 million views on YouTube as of Friday afternoon. No Kimmel monologue since his return from suspension in September 2025 has drawn as many views.
The episode also delivered one of Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s stronger ratings performances of the season among younger viewers. Tuesday’s show averaged 2.552 million total viewers and 463,000 adults 18–49, according to Nielsen Live+Same Day data obtained by LateNighter, with the latter marking JKL’s third-highest demo delivery of the 2026-27 season to date. Those numbers will grow as delayed viewing ratings are released over the coming days.
As we’ve reported, Kimmel had an unusual amount of late-night real estate to himself Tuesday. NBC preempted both The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers for continuous election coverage, while CBS likewise handed its late-night hours over to its news division.
ABC stuck with Jimmy Kimmel Live!, though viewers on the East Coast had to wait a little longer than expected. ABC News remained on the air for an additional 20 minutes as news came in that Democrats had taken the majority in both the House and Senate, pushing Kimmel’s scheduled 11:35 p.m. start to 11:55.
The show itself had taped roughly two hours earlier, late enough for Kimmel to react to the direction the midterms were taking. He opened by telling the audience he was “feeling pretty good,” and joking that “the only ass on Trump’s mind tonight is the one that got handed to him.”
Kimmel continued the onslaught Wednesday alongside the rest of late night after the full scope of Democrats’ midterm gains had come into focus.
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