Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension may have briefly taken him off the airwaves, but it turns out the biggest winner of the entire ordeal wasn’t ABC, late-night TV, or even Kimmel himself. A side not involved in the controversy at all says it benefited the most from the controversy and subsequent fallout.
During a presentation this week at the MIA Market in Rome, YouTube’s Head of Business Strategy and Operations for EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa), Luca Forlin, revealed just how massive the digital response was to Kimmel’s much-hyped return to Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Forlin told the audience that while ABC saw a noticeable bump in linear TV viewership when Kimmel came back, those numbers were nothing compared to the audience that flocked to YouTube.
The official YouTube upload of Kimmel's first post-suspension monologue has racked up an impressive 22 million views in the two weeks after it aired. That’s not including clips, monologues, and highlight segments tied to Kimmel’s return that have pulled in millions more.
In total, Forlin suggested, the show’s digital footprint may have been several times larger than its television audience. That's saying something, considering the ABC broadcast gave Kimmel his best ratings in more than a decade.
“That multiplier effect, four times, five times, six, even ten times, is what we observe day-in, day-out on live streaming and live events,” Forlin explained. The takeaway was that even as traditional TV ratings stagnate (which Kimmel's have to a degree since returning), YouTube continues to give a longer life to content that begins on linear platforms.
Forlin used Kimmel’s comeback as a victory lap for what YouTube can do that traditional television cannot. What once might have been a single-night event for fans has now become something that sustains and grows online. Fans who missed Kimmel’s on-air return found it on YouTube, where engagement was amplified through sharing, reactions, and algorithms.
It's also more fuel for Kimmel against his critics, who have spent months suggesting the late-night host's relevance has evaporated. Chief among them is former President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly mocked Kimmel’s ratings and even called on ABC to fire him. Yet the data tells a different story.
As Forlin’s comments make clear, YouTube sees itself not as a rival to television but as an amplifier. And in the case of Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension saga, it turned a late-night comeback into a worldwide viral moment. YouTube and Kimmel should both celebrate the accomplishment.