[Source: CNN Entertainment]

When ABC executives told Jimmy Kimmel last month that his show was being pulled off the air, the late-night show’s audience was seated, a guest chef had already started making food, the musical guest had performed a warm-up act, and Kimmel was in the bathroom.

“It was about 3:00; we tape our show at 4:30,” Kimmel told Stephen Colbert on an episode of “The Late Show” on Tuesday. “I’m in my office, typing away as I usually do. I get a phone call. It’s ABC. They say they want to talk to me. This is unusual: They, as far as I knew, didn’t even know I was doing a show previous to this.”

Kimmel said he had five writers in his office at the time, and the only private place where he could take the call was the bathroom.

“So I go into the bathroom, and I’m on the phone with the ABC executives. And they say, ‘Listen, we want to take the temperature down.
We’re concerned about what you’re going to say tonight, and we decided that the best route is to take the show off the air.’”

The audience booed, and Kimmel joked: “That’s what I said: I started booing.”

“I said, ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ and they said, ‘Well, we think it’s a good idea.’ Then there was a vote, and I lost the vote.”

Kimmel said he called some of the show’s executive producers into his office to share the news, and he turned white.

“I thought, that’s it. It’s over, it’s over. I was like, I’m never coming back on the air.”

Kimmel said the show had to send the seated audience home. Chef Christian Petroni’s prepared meatballs and polenta that he had been cooking before the taping went to waste.

Future musical guest Howard Jones, however, taped a song for a future episode: “Things Can Only Get Better,” which Kimmel acknowledged was ironic.

ABC suspended Kimmel’s show in mid-September for a few days after a controversial monologue that mentioned Charlie Kirk’s suspected killer – and the right-wing reaction to Kirk’s murder.

Two days later, FCC Chair Brendan Carr, on a conservative podcast, threatened to pull ABC affiliate broadcast licenses in response.

Then Nexstar — the station group which airs “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in approximately two dozen markets — announced they would not air the show. Another affiliate, Sinclair, followed suit. And hours later, Kimmel took ABC executives’ call in the bathroom.

Kimmel returned to the air the following Tuesday with an emotional monologue — and mega-ratings.

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