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Jimmy Kimmel Jokes About Trump and Late Night’s Future in Critics Choice Acceptance Speech

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Jimmy Kimmel took home the award for best talk series at the 2026 Critics Choice Awards on Sunday night and used the moment to deliver a characteristically sharp acceptance speech that doubled as a commentary on politics, media consolidation, and the increasingly fragile state of late-night television.

Accepting the prize for Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which beat out The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Late Night With Seth Meyers, The Daily Show, Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, and YouTube hit Hot Ones, Kimmel said he was genuinely surprised by the win. He then proceeded to unroll an intentionally overlong written speech onstage, underscoring the joke.

“I really didn’t expect this,” Kimmel said, before thanking the Critics Choice Association and singling out several individual reviewers by name, including Jeffrey Howard of KCLV-TV in Las Vegas. Kimmel and Howard attended high school together back in Vegas.

Early in the speech, Kimmel joked that he would have preferred a different kind of recognition altogether, referring to a “FIFA peace prize,” the award President Donald Trump received at the recently renamed Kennedy Center during last month’s World Cup draw.

Kimmel also thanked “our friends at Disney,” listing CEO Bob Iger, entertainment co-chair Dana Walden, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. About Altman, Kimmel quipped that he was the executive “who now owns my voice and face. Please don’t do anything weird with it.”

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The remark appeared to reference Disney’s recent $1 billion investment in OpenAI, which included a licensing agreement allowing users of OpenAI’s Sora platform to generate video clips featuring characters from Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars.

Turning to his fellow nominees, Kimmel joked that most of them, aside from Hot Ones host Sean Evans, “did not care enough to be here with you tonight.” Evans was shown on screen laughing during the speech, prompting Kimmel to add that Evans might someday be “the only one left.”

The joke landed amid growing uncertainty around the future of late-night television. In recent months, CBS canceled The Late Show, citing financial pressures. Trump has also publicly attacked Colbert, Kimmel, and Meyers, calling for all three hosts to be taken off the air.

Kimmel’s win follows a turbulent period for the ABC host. Earlier this fall, the network briefly suspended him after comments he made about the killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk sparked backlash. Trump’s FCC chair subsequently threatened the broadcast licenses of ABC affiliates over the remarks.

“It was almost a near-death experience for me. Of course, not literally, but I did feel a little bit like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn watching their own funeral, when all this stuff happened,” he told reporters backstage after receiving his award.

“To be here and to see that people reacted to it in not just a positive way, but in almost a desperate way, we’re like, ‘Oh boy, when they come after the comedians, this is when we draw the line.’ We’re very grateful that they drew the line at us.”

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Since returning to television, Kimmel and his wife and co-head writer, Molly McNearney, who joined him onstage Sunday, have spoken openly about free speech and the support they received during the suspension. Kimmel used part of his acceptance speech to address that moment directly.

“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 for us and reminded us that we do not take free speech for granted in this city or in this country. Your actions were important, and we appreciate them.”

He closed by returning to politics, offering what may have been the loudest laugh of the night.

“Most of all, I wanna thank our president, Donald Jennifer Trump,” Kimmel said. “Without whom, we’d be going home empty-handed tonight. 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 wait to get back on the air tomorrow night to talk about them.”

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Jimmy Kimmel And Stephen Colbert Join Forces Amid Mutual Cancellations 

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Late night TV hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert were both guests on each other’s shows this week. The two traded stories over their recent cancellations, which was temporary for Kimmel and permanent for Colbert, and discussed the state of modern journalism and free speech in America’s current political climate.

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Stephen Colbert Says ‘Gloves Are Off,’ Takes Aim At Trump And Paramount After Cancelation Announcement

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Stephen Colbert hosted his first episode of the Late Show after it was announced that it would be canceled. During the episode, among a slew of celebrity guests and other late night hosts offering their support, Colbert proclaimed that the “gloves were off” when it came to Paramount and Trump’s alleged involvement in the decision to axe the show.

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Late-Night TV Hosts Return After Five Months: ‘Good To Be Back’

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Late-night hosts have returned to television for the first time in over five months after going off the air for the writers strike.

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James Corden Breaks Silence on Restaurant Ban and Makes Things Worse

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In an interview with The New York Times to promote his new Prime Video series “Mammals,” the 44-year-old host of the Late Late Show, James Corden, finally addressed the comments made by Balthazar owner Keith McNally after he banned Corden from his restaurant.

In a post on Instagram, McNally said that Corden was “the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago.” It led him to “86” Corden, barring him from the eatery on Monday.

He lifted the ban hours later after Corden called McNally to apologize.  Corden said he was comfortable speaking about the situation while being interviewed a few days later.

“I haven’t done anything wrong on any level. So why would I ever cancel this [interview]? I was there. I get it. I feel so Zen about the whole thing. Because I think it’s so silly…I just think it’s beneath all of us. It’s beneath you. It’s certainly beneath your publication.”

When asked if he was aware of the conversation McNally’s posts ignited on the internet, Corden said he had not “really read anything” and asked, “should we not all be a little grown-up about this?”

“It’s strange. It’s strange when you were there. I think I’m probably going to have to talk about it on Monday’s show. My feeling, often, is, never explain, never complain. But I’ll probably have to talk about it…I promise you, ask around this restaurant. They don’t know about this. Maybe 15% of people. I’ve been here, been walking around New York, not one person’s come up to me. We’re dealing in two worlds here.”

During the interview, which was conducted at a restaurant, another customer happened to send back a dish nearby. Corden pointed out that incidents like this happen “every day” and they are “happening in 55,000 restaurants as we speak.” He asked the journalist, “Can you imagine now if we just blasted her on Twitter? Would that be fair? This is my point. It’s insane.”

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According to McNally, Corden treated his employees poorly both times he visited his restaurant and also at another establishment named Café Luxembourg.

One of the incidents happened in June when Corden found a hair in his lunch while dining at Balthazar.

McNally said that “although this is diabolical, it happens very occasionally in all restaurants.” Corden showed the hair to the manager after he finished his meal. The manager was apologetic. Corden then said, “Get us another round of drinks this second. And also take care of all of our drinks so far. This way I don’t write any nasty reviews in yelp or anything like that.”

In another incident, McNally said that Corden was upset about his wife’s meal and lashed out at a server.

“James Corden was at Balthazar with his wife on Oct. 9 for brunch. He asked for a table outside. Brunch Maitre D’ Allie Wolters took the party to table 301. Mr. Corden’s wife ordered an egg yolk omelet with Gruyere cheese and salad. A few minutes after they received the food, James called their server, M. K. and told her there was a little bit of egg white mixed with the egg yolk. M. K. informed the floor manager, G. The kitchen remade the dish but unfortunately sent it with home fries instead of salad. That’s when James Corden began yelling like crazy to the server: ‘You can’t do your job! You can’t do your job! Maybe I should go into the kitchen and cook the omelet myself!’ M.K. was very apologetic and brought G. over to the table. He returned the dish, and after that, everything was fine. He gave them promo Champagne glasses to smooth things out. G. said that Corden was pleasant to him but nasty to the server.’ M.K. was very shaken, but professional that she is, continued to finish her shift.”

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After publicly calling out Corden on social media and banning and then unbanning him from his renowned NYC restaurant, McNally shared with his Instagram followers that he was “feeling strange.”

“On the one hand, he was definitely abusive to my staff, on the other hand, I feel really sorry for him right now. Like most cowards I want it both ways, F— it, I’m going to get drunk.”

However, upon seeing the published NYTimes interview, McNally made another post on Instagram expressing his disappointment in Corden’s comments.

“I’ve no wish to kick a man when he’s down. Especially one who’s worth $100 Million, but when James Corden said in yesterday’s N.Y. Times that he hadn’t done “anything wrong, on any level,” was he joking? Or was he denying being abusive to my servers? Whatever Corden meant, his implication was clear: he didn’t do it. Although I didn’t witness the incident, lots of my restaurant’s floor staff did. They had nothing to gain by lying. Corden did. I wish James Corden would live up to his Almighty initials and come clean. If the supremely talented actor wants to retrieve the respect he had from all his fans (all 4 of them) before this incident, then he should at least admit he did wrong. If he goes one step further and apologizes to the 2 servers he insulted, I’ll let him eat for free at Balthazar for the next 10 years.”

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Late-Night Hosts Discuss House Impeachment Proceedings And Trump’s Final Week In Office

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This week late-night commentators and television hosts have spent their evenings discussing Donald Trump’s final week in office.

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Late-Night Hosts Reflect On Trump’s Mishandling Of The Pandemic And Urge Viewers To Vote

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As the US is entering into its third major wave of the coronavirus pandemic, and all 50 states are seeing rises in case numbers, late night television hosts are joining the likes of other celebrities with a major platform and speaking up against the current president and his handling of the virus as a means of getting their viewers to vote come next week. 

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