Jimmy Kimmel broke his silence after ABC reversed its decision to “indefinitely” pull his late-night show.

ABC announced on Monday, Sept. 22, that it would return Jimmy Kimmel Live! to air on Tuesday, Sept. 23 — just shy of a week after it had put the show on an indefinite hiatus on Wednesday, Sept. 17, following the host’s recent remarks about the late Charlie Kirk.

“Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” The Walt Disney Company said Monday in a statement obtained by PEOPLE. “It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive. We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”

The episode opened with a montage of news clips, featuring journalists and commentators discussing Kimmel’s suspension and subsequent return. The clip then cut to showing Kimmel and his sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez dressed in silly costumes, acknowledging that they needed to change for the big show.

Kimmel took the stage to a packed studio audience, who erupted into cheers as they gave him a standing ovation. The comedian then thanked fans before jokingly acknowledging the suspension, “Anyway, as I was saying before I was interrupted.”

“If you’re just joining us, we are preempting your regularly scheduled encore episode of Celebrity Family Feud to bring you this special report. I’m happy to be here tonight with you,” he said.

He continued, “I’m not sure who had a weirder 48 hours, me or the CEO of Tylenol. It’s been overwhelming. I’ve heard from a lot of people over the last six days. I’ve heard from all the people in the world over the last six days. Anyone I’ve ever met has reached out 10 or 11 times. Weird characters from my past, or the guy who fired me from my first radio job in Seattle, not airing tonight by the way. Sorry Seattle, his name is Larry.”

He then thanked everyone who checked on him, including his “fellow late-night talk show hosts, including Stephen Colbert, who “found himself in this predicament,” and “My friend Jon Stewart, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, John Oliver, Conan O’Brien, James Corden, Arsenio, Kathy, Wanda, Chelsea, and even Jay [Leno] reached out.”

He also thanked those who “supported our show, cared enough to do something about it, to make your voices heard so that mine will be heard. I will never forget it.”

His appreciation went on the other side of the aisle too. “And maybe weirdly, maybe maybe most of all, I want to thank the people who don’t support my show and what I believe, but support my right to share those beliefs anyway. People who I never would have imagined like Ben Shapiro, Clay Travis, Candace Owens, Mitch McConnell, Ryan Paul, even my old pal Ted Cruz, who believe it or not said something very beautiful on my behalf.”

He then got serious. “I’ve been hearing a lot about what I need to say and do tonight. And the truth is, I don’t think what I have to say is going to make much of a difference. If you like me, you like me. If you don’t, you don’t. I have no illusions about changing anyone’s mind.”

He acknowledged his previous comments that led to the suspension, getting choked up over the matter. “I do wanna make something clear, because it’s important to me as a human, and that is, you understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” referencing Kirk’s assassination. “I don’t, I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.”

He continued, “I posted a message on Instagram on the day he was killed, sending love to his family and asking for compassion, and I meant it and I still do. Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what it was obviously a deeply disturbed individual. That was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make. But I understand that to some that felt either ill-timed or unclear or maybe both. And for those who think I did point a finger. I get why you’re upset. If the situation was reversed, there’s a good chance I’d have felt the same way.”

And, on a timely front, Kimmel addressed the importance of free speech. “If we don’t have free speech, then we just don’t have a free country. It’s as simple as that.”

He played a clip of President Donald Trump sharing his remarks following the news the show was pulled. Kimmel also explained that the Pentagon is having journalists sign a pledge that they won’t report on information they hasn’t been authorized by the entity itself. “I know it’s not as interesting as muzzling a comedian but it’s so important to have a free press and it’s nuts that we aren’t paying more attention to it,” he said.

He added, “Walter Cronkite must be spinning in his grave. He’s dead right?”

“I never imagined I’d be in a situation like this — I barely paid attention in school. But one thing I did learn from Lenny Bruce and George Carlin and Howard Stern is a government threat to silence a comedian the president doesn’t like is anti-American.”

The network’s decision to pull Kimmel’s show came after broadcast companies Nexstar and Sinclair said they would preempt airings of Jimmy Kimmel Live! from ABC affiliates across the country due to the host’s remarks about Kirk’s murder, which they condemned.

Kirk, a conservative commentator, was shot and killed during a speaking event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10 at the age of 31. A memorial was held for Kirk on Sunday, Sept. 21.

Kimmel’s comments that have come under fire pertained to Kirk and his accused killer, Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old charged with aggravated murder in connection with Kirk’s death.

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” he said during the Monday, Sept. 15, episode during his opening monologue. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”

Kimmel then showed clips of President Donald Trump being asked about Kirk’s death, with one reporter offering him their condolences and asking how he’s holding up. The president responded by saying “I think very good,” before changing the subject to the construction of the new ballroom at the White House.

As the camera cut back to Kimmel, he said, “Yes, he’s at the fourth stage of grief: construction.”

“This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend,” Kimmel added. “This is how a 4-year-old mourns a goldfish, okay?”

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has praised both Nexstar, the largest local broadcast and digital media company in the U.S., and Sinclair, which makes up the nation’s largest ABC affiliate group, for their decision to pull Kimmel’s show in posts he shared to X.

Nexstar recently announced plans to acquire Tegna, a rival broadcast company, for more than $6 billion, a massive deal that would further consolidate the local television landscape and put Nexstar in 80% of America’s TV-owning households — despite current law permitting no more than 39% — according to a press release. The acquisition requires final approval from the Trump-controlled and Carr-run FCC.

Sinclair laid out a list of demands for Kimmel to meet before it would return Jimmy Kimmel Live! to the air, including him issuing “a direct apology to the Kirk family” and making a “meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA,” Kirk’s nonprofit that advocates for conservative politics on high school, college and university campuses.

Following Disney’s decision to return Jimmy Kimmel Live! to air, Sinclair and Nexstar both revealed they would continue preempting the show in their local markets. Again, Carr praised the broadcast companies for standing up to their network counterpart.

Directly after Kirk’s death, Kimmel took to social media to decry the “horrible and monstrous” killing.

“Instead of the angry finger-pointing, can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human?” he wrote at the time. “On behalf of my family, we send love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.”

The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!

Kimmel, who has hosted his late-night show on ABC since 2003, has been an outspoken critic of Trump since he first ran for president in 2016.

Trump, who has been at war with late-night hosts in recent months, celebrated Kimmel being taken off the air and said he was “fired for lack of talent.” Trump had previously predicted Kimmel would be the next late-night casualty following the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at CBS in July.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Following ABC’s move against Kimmel, he has received support from Hollywood pals, industry unions and his fellow late-night hosts, including Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, John Stewart and Colbert.

Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on ABC.