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Jimmy Kimmel: “Expectant Widow” Joke Wasn’t A “Call To Assassination”
Jimmy Kimmel is not having the President’s latest attacks.
The comedian opened his show on Monday joking that “sometimes you wake up in the morning and the First Lady puts out a statement demanding you be fired from your job. We’ve all been there, right?”
Last week, Kimmel made a joke about Melania Trump having the glow like an “expectant widow”.
“This was Thursday. There was no big reaction to it, until this morning, when I greeted the day facing yet another Twitter vomit storm and a call to fire me from our First Lady, Melania Trump, saying I should be fired because of a joke I made again five nights ago. It was a pretend roast,” he said. “It obviously was a joke about their age difference and the look of joy we see on her face every time they’re together. It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he’s almost 80 and she’s younger than I am. It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination, and they know that. I’ve been very vocal for many years, speaking out against gun violence, but I understand that the First Lady had a stressful experience over the weekend, and probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house.”
He agreed that hateful and violent rhetoric is something to reject. “I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it,” he added.
Kimmel also pointed out the hypocrisy of the Trump administration given that Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News that there would be “some shots fired” during Trump’s speech at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
He also pointed out that it was “déjà vu” given that it’s not the first time that the President has called for him to be fired.
Trump took to Truth Social earlier on Monday, calling on Disney-owned ABC to “immediately fire” Kimmel.
“I appreciate that so many people are incensed by Kimmel’s despicable call to violence, and normally would not be responsive to anything that he said but, this is something far beyond the pale,” he added.
The first lady railed against Kimmel earlier on Monday, calling on the network to “take a stand” against him. ABC has not yet commented.
Kimmel’s skit on Thursday had him giving his own “alternative” monologue to the Correspondents’ Dinner, with archival clips of reaction shots from the first lady, Trump and others.
Kimmel said, “Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”
This all comes just over six months after Disney’s last run in with the President over late-night.
On September 15, 2025, Kimmel discussed the death of Charlie Kirk in his monologue, noting that the “MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them”.
This led to outrage from the right and was followed by FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who warned ABC over the comments and said “we can do this the easy way or the hard way” on a podcast.
This led to station groups Nexstar and Sinclair pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live!, prompting ABC to “indefinitely” pull the show from the air.
Kimmel was told of the decision by then Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Dana Walden, who was subsequently promoted to President and Chief Creative Officer of The Walt Disney Company, after a discussion between Walden and then-CEO Bob Iger.
The decision was widely panned by many including Kimmel’s rival late-night hosts, Democratic politicians, and unions as well as, perhaps most surprisingly, Republican figures including Ted Cruz, who called it “dangerous”
On September 22, Disney made the decision to bring Jimmy Kimmel Live! back on air after “thoughtful conversations” with the comedian.
The next day, after Trump said that he couldn’t believe ABC gave Kimmel his job back, Kimmel was on air and said that “our government cannot be allowed to control what we do and do not say on television”.
That episode quickly became the second most-watched ever episode of JKL! and was followed by a group of Disney shareholders who queried whether the Disney board “breached their fiduciary duties of loyalty, care, and good faith by placing improper political or affiliate considerations above the best interests of the Company and its stockholders”.
A few months later, Kimmel signed a new deal with ABC to continue hosting the show through May 2027.
Deadline understands that this deal was intended to be Kimmel’s last but whether that is the case, remains to be seen, both from the political pressure that he faces, and the fact that he was vacillated wildly over the years when it comes to his contracts.
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As Jimmy Kimmel returns to his late-night post, he’s ready to take the show across the river for Brooklyn Week once again.
On Thursday, ABC announced that Jimmy Kimmel Live! will head to Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House for the eighth Brooklyn Week, which will kick off next Monday with an all-star lineup.
This year’s guests for Brooklyn Week include New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Mahershala Ali, Billy Crystal, Pete Davidson, Robby Hoffman, Paul McCartney, Seth Meyers, Tom Morello, John Oliver, Bernie Sanders, Bruce Springsteen and Howard Stern, with musical guests De La Soul, Goose, TV On the Radio, and Springsteen & Tom Morello.
All five shows will tape in front of a live studio audience at BAM, to air every weeknight at 11:35pm ET on ABC and stream the next day on Hulu.
Jimmy Kimmel Live is produced by 12:05 AM Productions LLC, in association with Kimmelot and 20th Television. Kimmel, Erin Irwin, Molly McNearney, Jennifer Sharron and David Craig serve as executive producers, with Douglas DeLuca and Danny Ricker as co-executive producers.
Brooklyn Week comes after ABC denied “inaccurate” reports that Jimmy Kimmel Live! is ending in 2027 after 24 seasons.
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EXCLUSIVE: An end-of-week memo from Disney‘s Chief Legal and Global Affairs Officer has fired a warning shot that layoffs are coming amidst a “transformation process” that includes “automating certain workflows by leveraging the latest technologies.”
Without actually saying that AI is taking over or that job losses are on the horizon, the memo by Horacio Gutierrez strongly implies that. Sent out at noon on Sept. 18 to the LGA department, which counts less than 1,000 members globally, the missive has taken on a life of its own. It is being circulated among the Disney rank and file, with many fearing that the blunt warning to LGA staffers applies to them too as they are bracing for rounds of layoffs, expected to begin as early as next week. Unspecified cuts within the LGA department are not connected to the next round of cuts, I hear. I’m told.
The memo has also been shared throughout the entertainment law community in L.A., NYC and DC.
Noting that the Mouse House’s “legal, government relations, operations, and others, are going through their own reinvention as technology reshapes how work gets done, and the operating models that underpin those professions,” the multi-tasked Gutierrez says he’s “taking a dispassionate look at every aspect of how we do our work, so we can do it in a more efficient and cost-effective manner.”
Gutierrez joined Disney from Spotify in late 2021 under Bob Chapek‘s short-lived reign as CEO. Replacing Disney veteran Alan Braverman in the top in-house legal job, Gutierrez was one of few key Chapek lieutenants to keep his job when Bob Iger returned as CEO in late 2022.
“Obviously, this will require hard choices about where and how we deploy our resources and investments, including our staffing investments and how we work will look different in the months and years ahead,” Gutierrez writes in the memo, adding, “LGA will be a much smaller organization than it is today, and some of you will personally be affected by decisions we make in this process. As a result, we’ll have to consider a whole range of new models for different workloads, including automating certain workflows by leveraging the latest technologies, moving to self-service models where appropriate, engaging alternative legal providers and others, and new expanded share services, even outsourcing.”
Proving once again that timing is everything in this town, Gutierrez’s memo came on the same day that Disney unveiled Karandeep Anand as the company’s very first Chief Technology Officer. The ex-Character.AI, CEO will report directly to Disney boss Josh D’Amaro. With the most recent rounds of job cuts hitting Disney in April and then July, execs made no secret on the Aug. 5 earnings call that more is to come. To that, Gutierrez email also came as the deadline was looming for qualifying longtime Disney executives to take the company’s voluntary early retirement offer, first unveiled in August by EVP and Chief People Officer Sonia Coleman. The process was always expected to be followed by involuntary layoffs.
Cutting to the chase in his September 18 memo, and invoking the name of D’Amaro, Gutierrez goes on to tell his staff that “when teams work smarter, Disney can serve more fans at lower costs, freeing up capital to reinvest in the content, guest experiences, and technology infrastructure that keep the company out in front.”
“Josh’s vision is of a Disney that succeeds in a changing market by breaking internal walls and embracing technology to amplify what makes it great, not by clinging to the way things always have been done.”
Disney would not comment on Gutierrez’s memo or on a timeline and scope of the upcoming job cuts when contacted Thursday by Deadline.
Nellie Andreeva contributed to this report
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SPOILER ALERT: This post contains details on Big Brother Season 28, Episode 39, which aired on Thursday, September 24.
Big Brother Season 28 is down to its final four, and the night will reveal the final three houseguests who can still win the whole game.
Week 11 saw an Egyptian Eviction, which saw Melody Morris fall victim and leave the game, making her the fifth jury member.
Following the special eviction, Taylor Brown became Head of Household (HOH) and put Dee Valladares and Drew Campbell up for eviction. At the Power of Veto (POV) competition, Drew won and saved himself.
The final POV had tremendous power as the holder would determine who would be evicted and who would make it to Final 3.
RELATED: ‘Big Brother: The Group Chat’ Sets Kate Lawler & GK Barry As Hosts Of ITV2’s ‘BBUK’ Companion Show
How did the Big Brother Season 28 houseguests vote in Week 11?
Dee and Devens were the two housemates on the block, but one wouldn’t survive the night.
Votes to evict Dee: Drew
Votes to evict Devens: No votes
RELATED: ‘Big Brother’ Season 28 Debuts To Series’ Best Premiere Audience In 5 Years
Who was evicted from Big Brother Season 28 in Week 11?
By a vote of 1 to 0, Dee was the housemate evicted from Big Brother Season 28 in Week 11 and became the sixth member of the jury.
RELATED: CBS’ ‘Big Brother’ Continues To Lock Up Solid Ratings As ‘Unlocked’ Spinoff Scores Big
Who are the Final 3 houseguests in Big Brother Season 28?
The final three houseguests who could potentially win Big Brother Season 28 are Taylor Brown, Drew Campbell, and Rick Devens.
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