‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ Hits Highest Ratings Ever for Midterm Election Telecast With 2.4 Million Viewers

Last week’s midterm elections brought good news for more than just the Democratic party.

The Tuesday night episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” brought 2.4 million viewers to ABC, according to Nielsen. That total marks not only a 53% increase compared with the late night talk show’s most recent midterm telecast on Nov. 8, 2022, which reached 1.6 million viewers, but its biggest midterm election telecast ever. Kimmel also did well in terms of rating among adults age 18-49, scoring a 0.32 — an increase of 68% from 2022’s 0.19 rating. Excluding episodes that benefited from NFL, NBA and NHL lead-in, that’s the highest rating Kimmel has seen in more than a year, since the buzzy episode on Sept. 23, 2025 in which he returned to the air after his controversial suspension over comments he made about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

“Jimmy Kimmel Live” had a strong week overall, averaging 2.5 million viewers and a 0.23 rating among adults age 18-49 overall, bringing the show to the No. 1 position in both metrics compared with its late-night competitors. It has remained in the top spot for all seven weeks of the broadcast season thus far.

And when comparing with last season’s viewership, “Jimmy Kimmel Live” is showing double-digit growth. The season average to date is 2.5 million viewers, up 16% from last year’s 2.1 million viewer-average at the same point in time. This is the fifth season in a row that the show has shown year-over-year growth by Week 7 of the broadcast calendar. Season 25 is currently on track to become Kimmel’s most-watched in 12 years, since the 2014-2015 season.