Jimmy Kimmel won the award for best talk show at the 31st annual Critics Choice Awards and used his acceptance speech to roast US President Donald Trump.
The talk show host also thanked fellow entertainers and union members who supported him after ABC briefly pulled his late-night program off the air earlier this year.
The controversy stemmed from a monologue in which Kimmel discussed Charlie Kirk’s alleged shooter, prompting complaints from two major owners of ABC affiliate stations, Nexstar and Sinclair. ABC subsequently removed “Jimmy Kimmel Live” from its schedule, a move that drew widespread backlash from writers, actors, producers and labor groups across the entertainment industry.
Accepting the award for best talk show on Monday (IST), Kimmel credited that support for the show’s return. “Thanks to all the writers and actors and producers and union members, many of you who are in this room, who supported us, who really stepped forward us and reminded us that we do not take free speech for granted in this city or in this country,” Kimmel said. “Your actions were important, and we appreciate them.”
He also took a dig at Trump, whom he routinely targets in his monologues.
“And most of all, I want to thank our president, Donald Jennifer Trump, without whom, we would be going home empty-handed tonight,” Kimmel added. “So thank you, Mr. President, for all the many ridiculous things you do each and every day. It’s been a banner couple of weeks, and we can’t get wait to get back on the air tomorrow night to talk about them. Thank you, everyone.”
Variety reported last month that Kimmel reached a new agreement with Disney to extend his late-night run by another year, keeping “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on the air through 2027.
Kimmel has remained one of Trump’s most vocal late-night critics. He recently condemned the president’s response to the murder of filmmaker Rob Reiner, after Trump referred to Reiner as “deranged” and suggested his death was “due to the anger” he caused others by being anti-Trump.
The host also slammed Trump during a special Christmas Day broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom.
“Millions and millions of people stood up” when the network pulled his show, Kimmel said, “and said: ‘No, this is not acceptable’. People who never watched my show, people who were on record saying they hate my show spoke out, they marched, they did this all to support the right to a free expression of speech and because so many people spoke out, we came back. Our show came back stronger than ever.”
“We won, the President lost and now I’m back on the air every night givin’ the most powerful politician on earth a right and richly deserved bollocking. That’s a word, right? I used it properly?” Kimmel added.