The late-night host got emotional as he discussed getting temporarily suspended from ABC and losing his bandleader and best friend.

Jimmy Kimmel tears up reflecting on ‘hard year’ on final Live show of 2025: ‘I’m crying already’

The late-night host got emotional as he discussed getting temporarily suspended from ABC and losing his bandleader and best friend.

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and *NME*.

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December 19, 2025 11:41 a.m. ET

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Jimmy Kimmel cries on his final 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' show of 2025. Credit:

Jimmy Kimmel teared up as he reflected on his "strange" and "hard" year during his last *Live* show of 2025. **

"Thank you for joining us here at our home in beautiful Hollywood, California, for what is our final show of the year," the late-night host began his opening monologue on Thursday. "And this one, this has been a strange year. It's been a hard year."**

Choking up, Kimmel continued, "We’ve had some lows. We've had some highs. For me, maybe more than any year in my life. But on behalf of all of us — I'm crying already. I'm sorry."

Jimmy Kimmel on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'.

Disney/Randy Holmes

He took a quick beat to gather himself. "On behalf of all of us at the show, I just want to say that we appreciate your support, your enthusiasm," he said. "And not just for watching this year — you literally pulled us out of a hole, and we cannot thank you enough, personally."**

It has been an eventful year for *Jimmy Kimmel Live, *which ABC temporarily took off the air in September after Kimmel's comments during the show about the killing of conservative pundit Charlie Kirk. The decision, which sparked a nationwide debate over freedom of speech, was reversed nearly a week later, although local TV stations Nexstar and Sinclair continued to preempt *Live* for a brief period after Disney, which owns ABC, lifted the suspension.**

In the months since, Kimmel has continued to fend off President Donald Trump's repeated insults and calls for his show to be canceled.

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During his monologue, Kimmel acknowledged that "there are a lot harder jobs" than his, but that "this is not an easy job to do, and sometimes it feels like we're spinning our wheels."**

He continued, "You see so many awful and destructive acts, all this damage we inflict on ourselves, on purpose, and it can make you feel crazy trying to wrap your head around these things that are so clearly wrong."

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The 58-year-old comedian then compared the experience to reading *Superman* and learning the value of "truth, justice, and the American way," only to realize "you don't know where that all went" over the past year. **

"But when I hear from people who tell me that they watch our show and the shows that my friends and colleagues do on the other channels and that it makes them feel less crazy, it makes me feel less crazy, too," he said. "And I think that's an important thing."**

Kimmel also noted the importance of letting other countries watching late-night shows on streaming services or online know "that a lot of us are not okay with what's happening" in the U.S. right now.

"There's still much more good in this country than bad," he said. "And we hope that you will bear with us during this extended psychotic episode that we're in the middle of. And we wish you a happy whatever holiday you celebrate, even if it's none of the above."**

In addition to his suspension and contending with Trump's attacks, Kimmel mourned the death of his *Live* bandleader and best friend Cleto Escobedo III in November. **

"He was just a great older brother," the host said of Escobedo in a monologue after his death. "No baggage, all love. There's no one in my life I felt more comfortable with. He was the godfather to my son Kevin. We were best men at each other's weddings."

"Cherish your friends," he added. "We're not here forever."**

Watch Kimmel look back on his difficult 2025 in the *Live* clip above.

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Source: “EW Talk”