Jimmy Kimmel became the first late night host to take on the results of the 2026 midterm elections late Tuesday night.
While none of the major late night shows went live on election night, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! reportedly taped later than usual on Tuesday night to react to some of the early returns. Comedy Central’s The Daily Show was the only other major late night show to air a new episode Tuesday night, but that was taped before many of the polls closed. Stephen Colbert regularly took his Late Show live on election nights, but, of course, CBS canceled his show last year and it came to an end in May.
Kimmel’s late taping allowed the host to get in some early jokes on a night that saw the Democrats projected to win both the House and the Senate amid historic, surprise victories in Georgia, Texas, Ohio, South Carolina and Kansas.
And Kimmel had plenty of barbs ready for President Donald Trump, with whom he has long feuded.
Early in his monologue he homed in on Trump’s recent fixation with complimenting people’s rear ends.
“It seems to be after all the talk about Nicki Minaj’s ass, Jon Husted’s ass, the only ass on Trump’s mind tonight is the one that just got handed to him.”
Kimmel even revived the false 2024 rumor about Vice President J.D. Vance once having sex with a couch.
“The Democrats took so many seats, J.D. Vance can’t even find one to have sex with him,” Kimmel said.
Returning to Trump, Kimmel joked that he spent the day watching Fox News coverage of the results “trying to give himself an insurrection.”
“Word from the from inside the White House is he’s already run out of dipping sauce containers to throw at the television set,” Kimmel joked. “Man, oh man, would I hate to be the Door Dash driver who delivers Trump his Papa John’s tonight?”
Kimmel went on to recap where some key races stood at the time of his show taping and paid tribute to outgoing House Speaker Mike Johnson with a compilation of some of his funniest moments.
This is part of The Hollywood Reporter’s ongoing midterm coverage. You can check out all of our pieces here.