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Rosie O'Donnell guest-hosting gives Jimmy Kimmel Live a ratings bump

tvAug 21, 202629637

Rosie O'Donnell’s first night guest-hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live! drew 1.87 million total viewers Monday, according to preliminary Nielsen Live+Same Day figures, the largest audience of any Kimmel guest host this summer. O'Donnell beat NBC’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in total viewers and led the adults 18, 49 demo with 218,000 viewers versus Fallon’s 156,000. Her Monday-night monologue has 2.4 million views on YouTube as of this writing, more than twice as many as the most-watched monologue from any other Kimmel guest host this summer. Latenighter noted that Jimmy Kimmel’s regular monologues typically top 3 million YouTube views and that the 1.87 million Nielsen number is an early snapshot that will grow as delayed viewing is added. O'Donnell used the week to criticize former president Donald Trump without naming him, calling him “President Oompa Loompa” and quipping that he made her “re-famous.” She capped the run with a parody song framed as “Oh Donny Boy” that circulated widely online. The ratings result positions O'Donnell as this summer’s top Kimmel substitute but still below Kimmel’s usual live and online reach.

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