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'As I was saying...'

In his back-to-work monologue, Jimmy Kimmel predicted that the restoration of his show would "unfortunately and unjustly" put ABC at risk of additional pressure from the government.

One hour before the monologue aired on ABC, President Trump proved him right, posting a blustery new legal threat against the network on Truth Social.

Trump's message swerved between dismissive — Kimmel's "audience is GONE," he claimed — and intimidating. He claimed Kimmel "puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE. He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution. I think we're going to test ABC out on this. Let's see how we do."

ABC has not responded to CNN's request for comment about Trump's "Truth."

This latest legal threat may come and go, but it is another crystal-clear example of the president using his government power to cajole a privately owned media company into changing its content. In this case, it's for a very specific reason: The president can't stand being criticized night after night. 

Trump's post also highlighted how last December's Disney settlement has emboldened him to make further demands of media companies. "Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars," the president wrote. "This one sounds even more lucrative."

Trump's tone is revealing. "They gave me" $16 million sounds so casual, when in fact ABC's payout was anything but. The company decided to settle Trump's defamation lawsuit against ABC News to avoid the legal discovery process and an unpredictable trial, not out of the goodness of Mickey Mouse's heart. Numerous critics, including some inside ABC, now look back at that settlement with regret, believing it kicked off a wave of media capitulation to the president.

In any case, Trump's latest threat is a clear indication that he intends to punish ABC for allowing Kimmel to return to the air. It also once again contradicts the MAGA claim that Trump and Brendan Carr had nothing to do with Kimmel's benching. As Justin Amash, the former GOP congressman, said on X, the president’s words "torpedoed every White House surrogate who claimed the administration wasn’t attempting to coerce Disney/ABC."

Kimmel geared up his audience for this continued grudge match last night. He assailed Trump's "un-American" attacks on free speech and borrowed a line from the late great comedian Jack Paar, the second host of "The Tonight Show," who quit hosting the show for nearly a month in 1960 over a dispute with NBC's censors. When Paar returned to work, he opened by saying, "As I was saying before I was interrupted..."

And that's exactly how Kimmel opened last night, as well. "By borrowing Paar’s comeback, Kimmel placed his own suspension in the lineage of late-night defiance," LateNighter's Jed Rosenzweig wrote overnight. It was a calculated echo of late-night history by Kimmel: "Rather than treating his absence as punishment, he reframed it as an interruption — a pause in the conversation with his audience that he now controls again."

Much to Trump's chagrin, Kimmel got the last laugh — for now.

Eight million views and counting

"How many people watched Jimmy Kimmel tonight" is a breakout search term right now, according to Google Trends. When the overnight Nielsen #s come in, I'll file a story for CNN.com. But in the meantime, check out the view count on the official YouTube video of his monologue.

The 28-minute clip has more than 7.8 million views so far this morning, already making it the most-watched clip on Kimmel's YouTube channel this year, not surprisingly. BTW, many of the other clips with multiple millions of views are anti-Trump commentaries, not celeb interviews or sketches — a reminder, in case one was needed, that this is exactly what Kimmel's audience wants from him...

So, about last night...

TV critics and First Amendment experts are raving about Kimmel's commentary, of course. He "met the moment with his powerful, tightrope-walking monologue," THR's Angie Han wrote overnight. Kimmel's dominant emotion "was gratitude — for the millions who supported him, the famous people and the regular folk, his fellow late-night hosts, the fans and even the haters," LateNighter's Bill Carter wrote.

My main takeaway (in a story I filed to my long-suffering editor Andrew Kirell at 1 a.m. ET!) was that Kimmel is not going to temper his criticism of the president or the administration. And I would argue Kimmel is now in a stronger position to speak out because ABC has explicitly supported his show by bringing it back after a week-long break.

"This show is not important," Kimmel told viewers. "What's important is that we live in a country that allows us to have a show like this."

Kimmel preps folks for next time

Trump is "not stopping," Kimmel said, noting that the president has called for NBC to fire Jimmy Fallon. "I hope that if that happens, or if there's even any hint of that happening, you will be ten times as loud as you were this week," Kimmel said. "We have to speak out against this," he added over the approving cheers of his studio audience. Attendees told CNN's Stephanie Elam that Kimmel received a several minute long standing ovation when he walked out on stage. It was so loud "it was ear damaging to be honest," attendee Kevin Winhard said.

Losing the comedy podcasters...

Joe Rogan has joined the small but notable chorus of Trump-aligned figures criticizing the administration’s threats against ABC — and the MAGA media folks who've cheered it on. "I definitely don't think that the government should be involved ever in dictating what a comedian can or cannot say in a monologue," Rogan said on his podcast, calling the conservatives who want Trump to exact revenge "crazy." The key quote: "You are crazy for supporting this because this will be used on you."

Rogan went a step further than even most liberal commentators, outright defending the original Kimmel monologue that led to all of this. "I think what he was trying to do was just set up a joke," he said. "He was trying to knock on the MAGA people, but also set up a joke, which was good. It was very funny."

>> Speaking of the "podcast bros," Theo Von also railed against the Trump admin for using one of his videos to promote its mass deportations. He tweeted at DHS about it.

'Not good enough'

"It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man," Kimmel said at one point last night, very clearly fighting through tears. “Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what was obviously a deeply disturbed individual." He also praised Erika Kirk.

But for MAGA media, none of it makes up for Kimmel's offending monologue last week. "Not good enough," tweeted Kirk's exec producer Andrew Kolvet, who then scripted the apology he would like to hear. That's not going to be forthcoming, so this dispute is not going away...

For progressives, this is proof that pushback works 

The right has (somewhat successfully!) overstated the hold "that Trumpism has on the culture writ large," Greg Sargent argues in this TNR column. "The reality MAGA will not acknowledge is this: Trump's authoritarian tactics in suppression of disfavored speech are themselves triggering a massive cultural outcry. And by all indications, it's larger than the one driving the push to censor imperfect speech about Kirk."

More Kimmelgate notes

 >> If you went to bed after Kimmel's monologue, you missed Robert De Niro's cameo. He played Brendan Carr. (Variety)

 >> Carr hasn't tweeted about the Kimmel monologue yet. Yesterday, he framed this whole dispute as healthy pushback between local stations and national networks. Bottom line: He "plans to keep going after the media," Cecilia Kang writes. (NYT)

 >> "How long can Nexstar and Sinclair" keep preempting Kimmel, and "What are ABC's options?" Dade Hayes has some answers. (Deadline)

 >> Rich Greenfield reminds us of the three other times local ABC affiliates refused to carry ABC network programming — none of which aged well. (X)

Oh, and by the way...

Disney "is hiking the price of its subscription streaming service — and the timing couldn't be more awkward," as CNN's Liam Reilly wrote here.

There is no real way to know how many households dropped Disney+ and Hulu in recent days. However, the NYT does have this factoid: "Data from the research firm Yipit suggests that the 'cancel Disney+' campaign has caused more subscriber churn than some imbroglios at other companies," like the controversy over the Netflix show "Cuties" years ago.

Kimmel joked last night that Disney wanted him to read aloud some instructions for reinstating Disney+ subscriptions.

Now let's pivot to a few other stories...

Apple shelves 'The Savant'

"The release of Apple TV+'s The Savant has been put on hold," just "three days before the thriller starring Jessica Chastain was slated to premiere," Deadline's Nellie Andreeva reports. "The streamer would not elaborate on the reasons for the last-minute change but The Savant's subject matter is believed to be behind it, with the storyline about preventing extremist attacks and some of the imagery considered possibly triggering" following the Kirk assassination.

 >> Variety TV critic Aramide Tinubu, who screened the entire eight-episode series for review, says Apple is "making a huge mistake" because "The Savant" is "precisely the type of show America needs right now." Here's why.

YouTube unbanning some MAGA media creators

YouTube's parent company, Alphabet, used this free speech moment to announce that it will "reinstate creators previously banned for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and false election content," The Hill reported yesterday. This change will apply to MAGA media figures like Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka.

 >> In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, the company said it faced pressure from the Biden administration to police conservative speech, which Alphabet said was "unacceptable and wrong." The company said it "has consistently fought against those efforts on free speech grounds."

NEW THIS MORNING

Attiah files grievance against WaPo 

The fired WaPo opinion writer Karen Attiah "has filed a grievance arguing that she should have been allowed to share her views on news events under the company's labor agreement and social media policy," the NYT's Ben Mullin reported a few minutes ago. Attiah is "seeking to recover damages from her firing..."

Briefly…

 >> Dallas Morning News shareholders "have voted to approve a merger with Hearst" and reject a competing offer from Alden. (DMN)

 >> Kari Lake under oath: Lake was deposed in the ongoing legal battle over Voice of America, and Scott Nover read through it all. (WaPo)

 >> New Jersey PBS says it will have to "shut down next summer" after its parent "couldn't reach a deal with the state amid massive funding cuts to public media." (Asbury Park Press)

 >> The Washington Post is giving staffers "the ability to respond to a comment via video" and "connect in a more personal way with our audiences." (X)

 >> Noel Clarke "has been ordered to pay The Guardian at least 3 million pounds to cover the news organization's legal costs after the actor lost a libel lawsuit over its reporting of sexual misconduct allegations." (FT)

AI 🤝 publishers?

Microsoft is talking to publishers about trying out "a two-sided marketplace that would compensate publishers for their content used by AI products," Sara Fischer and Kerry Flynn scooped for Axios. They say this could be "a milestone in building a sustainable business model for content companies in the AI era." Details here...

More of today's tech talk

 >> Meta is "introducing a translation feature for its WhatsApp messaging service, aiming to ease cross‑language chats among its more than 3 billion users." (Reuters)

 >> "Videos about an alleged Rapture have taken TikTok by storm, as end times discussion finds a new vehicle — algorithmic social media," Herb Scribner writes. (Axios)

Entertainment notes and quotes

 >> Fox is reviving "Baywatch." (TheWrap)

 >> "The Pitt" has "set a record with the largest post-season viewership growth for the debut season of any HBO or HBO Max show." (Deadline)

 >> A supernatural drama called "Pagans" by "Say Nothing" creator Joshua Zetumer "triggered a bidding frenzy" in Hollywood, with Netflix emerging as the winner. (Deadline)

This edition of Reliable Sources was edited by Andrew Kirell and produced with Liam Reilly. Email us your feedback and tips here.