Brian Stelter

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.

I am not against you, conservative America.

He is clearly against President Trump, but he was almost trying to split off

Trump and Trump's aberrant behavior from the rest of the party and the rest of the movement.

He was offering condolences to Erica Kirk.

He was complimenting and praising Erica Kirk's speech over the weekend, her tribute to her late husband.

He was trying to offer a little bit of a bridge or an on-ramp to conservatives while at the same time making clear

he's going to continue to satirize Donald Trump.

He's gonna continue to speak out against the administration.

So I think he said exactly what ABC wanted him to say.