There’s nothing quite like accepting an award and using it as an opportunity to publicly thank the person who tried to get you fired.
At the 2026 Critics Choice Awards on Sunday, Jimmy Kimmel did exactly that—winning Best Talk Show and immediately crediting the man who spent the last year trying to destroy his career: “Donald Jennifer Trump.”
WHAT’S GOING ON: Kimmel took the stage in Santa Monica to accept the award for Jimmy Kimmel Live! and delivered the kind of backhanded gratitude that only makes sense in our current hellscape.
“I want to thank our president, Donald Jennifer Trump, without whom we would be going home empty-handed tonight,” Kimmel said. “Thank you, Mr. President, for all the many ridiculous things you do each and every day.”
THE DETAILS: This wasn’t just a random potshot. Trump spent all of 2024 attacking Kimmel on Truth Social, calling him a “bum” and demanding he be taken off air. Then in September, the Trump-appointed FCC chairman Brendan Carr threatened to revoke ABC’s broadcasting license over Kimmel’s comments about the MAGA reaction to Charlie Kirk’s death. Jimmy Kimmel Live! was briefly suspended.
OF COURSE: The whole thing backfired spectacularly. When Kimmel returned to air, he broke YouTube viewing records and scored his second-highest TV ratings ever. Turns out trying to silence someone is great publicity.
BUT BUT BUT: Kimmel wasn’t just there to roast Trump. He used the platform to thank the writers, actors, producers, and union members who rallied behind him during the FCC crisis. “Many of you were in this room who supported us, who really stepped forward with us, and reminded us that we do not take free speech for granted in this city or in this country,” he said.
This follows Kimmel’s Christmas message on Britain’s Channel 4, where he called out Trump as “the guy who thinks he is our king” and declared that “from a fascism perspective, this has been a really great year. Tyranny is booming over here.”
WHY IT MATTERS: Kimmel explained exactly why the attempted silencing failed: “People who never watched my show, people who were on record saying they hate my show spoke out, they marched… We won, the president lost and now I’m back on the air every night giving the most powerful politician on Earth a right and richly deserved bollocking.”
The show beat out The Daily Show, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for the award—its second win and tenth nomination. Jimmy Kimmel Live! returns Monday with Ben Affleck.