Jimmy Kimmel has recalled the moment he found out his talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! was being pulled from broadcast indefinitely. ABC executives suspended the TV personality's show on 17 September over comments he made about the assassination of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk. After a significant backlash, Kimmel returned to the air on 23 September after a six-day suspension. Giving his first interview about the situation on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday, Kimmel revealed that he received a call from ABC bosses an hour and a half before he was scheduled to tape his show and he went into a bathroom for privacy. "So I go into the bathroom. And I'm on the phone with the ABC executives and they say, 'Listen, we wanna take the temperature down. We're concerned about what you're gonna say tonight and we decided that the best route is to take the show off the air," he remembered. "I said I don't think that's a good idea, and they said, 'Well, we think it's a good idea.' And then there was a vote and I lost the vote. So I put my pants back on and I walked out to my office and I called in some of the executive producers, and there were about nine people in there, and I said, 'They're pulling the show off the air.'" Kimmel explained that he was very pale when he walked out of the meeting and thought his show was "over" for good, adding, "I was like, I'm never coming back on the air." The 57-year-old noted that the audience was already in their seats waiting for the show to begin, so they sent them home. However, they still taped the episode, with chef Christian Petroni doing a cookery demonstration and musician Howard Jones performing for Kimmel's "disappointed employees". After spending a few more hours in the studio, Kimmel was "followed by 20 paparazzi cars" as he made his way home. "We're just trying to get to the house and we're like, 'Should we be going to our house?' There are two helicopters following us home," he recounted, noting that his family was "shaken". Of the days afterwards, Kimmel added, "I just had to sit quiet and make a lot of phone calls and take a lot of phone calls... I did hear from literally everyone I have ever met." Colbert also appeared as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday night as it was taping a special episode in New York. During his appearance, he discussed finding out that his talk show would be ending in May 2026.