Brian Stelter

That's going to mean the ratings are going to drop.

That's going to be a big, big, bad problem for ABC.

But not in this case, right?

Because more than 20% of an additional audience poured in last night.

I can say that without even seeing the ratings yet.

Clearly, there's so much interest in this story that Kimmel and ABC are benefiting from a surge of viewer interest.

So, yes, in Seattle and Washington and in some smaller markets, people were not able to watch the show at 11.35.

But those viewers are just gonna work a little harder.

They're gonna go to YouTube or Hulu or Disney+.

They're gonna watch the monologue this morning.

And you know that monologue is getting millions of views per hour on YouTube right now.

It is already, by 8 a.m.

Eastern, it was already Kimmel's most watched YouTube video of the year.

Not surprisingly.

You know, everybody wanted to hear what he was gonna say.

So, Nexstar and Sinclair,

they don't hold a lot of cards right now.

They can continue to protest Kimmel's show, but ABC has contracts with these companies and they're going to probably start to enforce those contracts.

Brian, what were your thoughts on his monologue last night?

Number one, he's trying to say, I am not, he's trying to say, I, Jimmy Kimmel, am not anti-Republican.