Jimmy Kimmel Skewers JD Vance While Celebrating His Return to All Broadcast Channels: ‘Vice President Maybelline’

Jimmy Kimmel isn’t holding back in his barbs at Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump as he kicks off a week of shows in Brooklyn, N.Y.

On Monday, Sept. 29, the 57-year-old late-night host took the stage at the Howard Gilman Opera House at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

This episode marked only the second nationwide broadcast since Jimmy Kimmel Live! was briefly suspended by Disney and removed from major stations on Sept. 17. While the suspension was lifted on Sept. 22, networks Nexstar and Sinclair continued their preemption until Friday, Sept. 26.

During his opening monologue, Kimmel targeted the companies resuming his show while taking aim at Vance over remarks the vice president made about Kimmel’s ratings and popularity.

“Vice President Maybelline was making the rounds, attempting to defend his boss and the chairman of the FCC with a new fairytale even a 5-year-old wouldn’t believe,” Kimmel quipped, before showing a clip of Vance’s interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News.

In that segment, Vance suggested allegations that FCC Chair Brendan Carr and Trump pressured the network to suspend Kimmel were unfounded.

“I’d like them to tell me exactly what Brendan Carr did to have Jimmy Kimmel taken off air because number one, he is currently on the air. And to the extent that he isn’t in certain stations, it’s because he’s not funny, because his ratings aren’t very good,” Vance said.

Kimmel shot back, boasting that Nexstar and Sinclair had reinstated his show, ensuring it airs nationwide once again.

“I have some good news for you, J Dog,” he said. “We’re back on all the stations at every home, every bar, every strip club and every prison in America.”

Returning to Vance’s interview, the vice president repeated his claim that Kimmel’s ratings were low because advertisers disliked him.

“My ratings aren’t very good!?” Kimmel retorted to audience boos. “Last time I checked, your ratings are somewhere between a hair in your salad and chlamydia.”

He continued, “In three and a half years, I’m not the one who’s going to be doing mascara tutorials on YouTube. How did we wind up with a president and a vice president who wear more makeup than Kylie Jenner and Lady Gaga combined?”

Earlier in the monologue, Kimmel took aim at Trump for declassifying records about Amelia Earhart’s disappearance while the Epstein files remain unreleased.

“The president has been hard at work coming up with all sorts of nonsense to distract us from the Epstein files,” he said. “Unless her final flight was to Epstein’s island, no one cares.”