Stephen Colbert Leads the Late-Night Reactions to Jimmy Kimmel’s Return

Jimmy Kimmel is returning to late night on Tuesday, and Stephen Colbert couldn’t be happier.

Colbert kicked off “The Late Show” on Monday with the “wonderful news” that "our long, national late-nightmare is over because Disney announced that ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ will return to air.”

Stephen whooped and the crowd cheered at the happy news.

Colbert than grabbed his Emmy joking, “Now that Jimmy’s not being canceled, I get to enjoy this again.”

He went on, “Once more, I am the only martyr in late night. Wait, unless… CBS, you want to announce anything…”

Stephen also pointed out that Disney brought back Jimmy after searches for how to cancel Disney+ and Hulu spiked.

“So Disney put Kimmel back on because you, the American people, were upset,” he said.

Jon Stewart also addressed Jimmy’s return on “The Daily Show,” teasing the audience, “That campaign that you all launched, pretending that you were going to cancel Hulu while secretly racing through four seasons of ‘Only Murders in the Building,’ that really worked, congratulations.”

Over on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” guest Sean Penn flashed a message for the FCC.

After jokingly asking if there was a “guillotine” over his head, he reached in his pocket, saying, “I found this in the dressing room, and I just thought I'd get it out of the way, because, you know, it's got brevity, I suppose. It was to the FCC.”

The actor then held up a sign that said, “Suck Less.”

Fallon told him, “Yeah. Thank you. I left that in there, or a friend of mine did…”

On “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” Seth applauded Jimmy’s return to late-night, saying, “There has been a massive national backlash to Trump's crackdown on free speech, even among conservatives.”

Last week, it was announced that “Jimmy Kimmel Live” was being pulled indefinitely after host Jimmy Kimmel made remarks about responses to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

In a statement obtained by "Extra," ABC and Disney said on Monday, “Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country.  It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive.”

Disney and ABC added, “We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”

Despite ABC and Disney's announcement, U.S. TV station owner Sinclair will still be preempting the show. In a statement, Sinclair said, "Beginning Tuesday night, Sinclair will be preempting ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!‘ across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming. Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return.”

Nexstar Media, another large TV station owner, also confirmed "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" will be preempted on their channels.

The company told People magazine in a statement, “We made a decision last week to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! following what ABC referred to as Mr. Kimmel’s ‘ill-timed and insensitive’ comments at a critical time in our national discourse. We stand by that decision pending assurance that all parties are committed to fostering an environment of respectful, constructive dialogue in the markets we serve."