Brian Stelter

Usually when there's a late night drama, we hear some pretty spicy information from sources.

In this case, I think everybody is trying to play it cool.

It was not in Kimmel's interest to go out there trying to burn ABC down, trying to leak against ABC.

His camp, so to speak, has not been out there trying to push certain narratives.

As far as I can tell, certainly my phone's not ringing, neither are other media reporters.

So it is telling that this has not exploded, you know, with background quotes and anonymous jabs back and forth.

It is interesting, though, that ABC's statement when they announced he was coming back, they referred to thoughtful conversations with Jimmy.

And I think that's a euphemism for some pretty strong language that was used back and forth, right?

Kimmel was clear on the air last night.

He did not agree with ABC's decision to suspend the show.

He did not want to be sidelined.

So I imagine there were expletives at first.

I imagine this was pretty heated at first.

And then as the days went by, they were able to reach a compromise and find common ground.

But look, that's notable, right?

Sometimes these late night stories, they erupt.

So think about Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno.

Sometimes this stuff does get aired in public and this time it hasn't.

Maybe that's number one, these two camps really do like each other.

But number two, Kimmel knows his power right now, doesn't he?