In news that is sure to inspire another Truth Social rant from the President, a new YouGov poll shows that late-night host Jimmy Kimmel is more popular than Donald Trump.
The poll was conducted amid Kimmel’s return to late-night following his temporary suspension. On September 17, ABC and Disney pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air amid backlash over comments the comedian made on-air about the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
At the time, Trump celebrated Kimmel’s suspension, blasting the late-night host as unfunny and untalented, and claiming ABC had “fired” him due to poor ratings. Kimmel returned to TV on Tuesday, September 22, after Disney and ABC ended the suspension amid backlash over censoring free speech and threats to boycott the company.
As reported by Newsweek, the latest YouGov poll shows Kimmel’s favorability rating is 16 points higher than Trump’s. This is based on 44 per cent of respondents saying they had a favorable view of Kimmel, with 41 per cent saying they viewed him unfavorably. This left the comedian with a net approval rating of +3 percentage points.
On the other hand, Trump earned an approval rating of 41 per cent of respondents, while 54 per cent said they viewed him unfavorably. This resulted in a net approval rating of -13 percentage points, 16 points fewer than Kimmel.
Kimmel addressed the Kirk controversy when he returned to late-night on September 22, telling viewers, “I do want to 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. I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.”
However, the host hasn’t let up on his criticism of Trump, which has only continued to irk the President.
“I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled!” Trump wrote on Truth Social after Kimmel’s return to the airwaves.
He added, “Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there. Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99 percent positive Democrat GARBAGE.”
Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Weeknights, 11:35 p.m. ET, ABC
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