Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos Sent Jimmy Kimmel an Ice Cream Truck After Making Rare Political Comments to Support Him

NEED TO KNOW

• Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos sent the Jimmy Kimmel Live! staff an ice cream truck as the long-running talk show returned to air this week

• Jimmy Kimmel was back on the air on Tuesday, Sept. 23, nearly a week after being indefinitely pulled from ABC

• During his Wednesday, Sept. 24 monologue, the late-night host revealed the “thoughtful” gesture from Ripa and Consuelos

Jimmy Kimmel is giving props to Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos.

The Jimmy Kimmel Live! host, 57, revealed on his Wednesday, Sept. 24 monologue — his second back after ABC temporarily suspended the show — that the daytime talk show hosts sent his staff an ice cream truck after they returned to air.

During his opening remarks on Wednesday’s episode, Kimmel acknowledged that he wasn’t able to thank everybody who supported him during the brief hiatus of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, in his first show back on Sept. 23. He thanked Bravo’s Andy Cohen for supporting him and gave a nod to Ripa and Consuelos, both 54, who offered him a kind gesture following the ordeal.

“I want to thank my good friends Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos for sending our staff an ice cream truck today, which is honestly very thoughtful and very sweet” Kimmel said, as his audience applauded.

“But next time, Kelly, if you could give us a heads up? Because when the truck pulled up, Guillermo [Rodriguez] saw the word ‘ICE’ and dived under a recycling bin. We’re a little on edge out here, but thank you.”

Ripa and Consuelos’ gift to the Kimmel crew follows the couple’s public support of Kimmel, which they addressed on Wednesday’s episode of Live with Kelly and Mark. The duo, who rarely address politics on their program, revealed what they thought about Kimmel speaking out.

“Jimmy Kimmel returned to his show last night. And you know, listen — we know him personally and when I tell you he’s one of the kindest, most generous people that I know. Cares about his family, takes care of his crew, his staff, everybody. He really, really cares,” Consuelos said, as Ripa added that Kimmel “cares about people.”

“And his statements last night, I think, were on point. He understands both sides, he was very humble in his speech,” Consuelos said.

During his first episode back on Tuesday, Kimmel delivered a tearful monologue, during which he spoke on the show’s brief suspension. The suspension itself followed comments Kimmel made about the fatal shooting of right-wing personality Charlie Kirk during his Sept. 15 episode. Both Ripa and Consuelos called his return monologue “very responsible.”

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“One thing we can all agree on as a country is that the First Amendment is very important,” Consuelos said. “We do a light show here. We don’t talk about any politics here, we just don’t do it. We know that our fans at home want an escape from all of that, and we agree — we want an escape from all of that!”

“But I think it’s important, too, that we all are free,” he added. “Because you never know — we can say something crazy and tomorrow we’re gone.”

After Ripa added that she says “crazy things all the time here,” her husband revealed that it is “not lost” on them that they are “sitting here in the Disney building, our home here.” Still, he added, it was “the right thing to do, for the company, to bring him back.”

The Walt Disney Company announced on Tuesday that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would come back following “thoughtful conversations with Jimmy,” as Sinclair and Nexstar — which own dozens of ABC-affiliated stations — both revealed they would continue preempting the show in their local markets.

Nexstar previously announced plans to acquire Tegna, a rival broadcast company, for more than $6 billion in a deal would consolidate the local television landscape and put Nexstar in 80% of America’s TV-owning households. The move required final approval from the Donald Trump-controlled and Brendan Carr-run Federal Communications Commission. ABC initially announced that the Kimmel would be on indefinite hiatus beginning on Wednesday, Sept. 17, as Carr praised the decision.

The controversy surrounding the show began when the comedian addressed the shooting death of Kirk on Sept. 15 monologue, sharing that “the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”

“In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving,” he added, before showing a clip of Trump being asked by a reporter how he was doing amid Kirk’s death (Trump said “very good” before changing the subject to the construction of the new ballroom at the White House).

“Yes, he’s at the fourth stage of grief: construction,” Kimmel joked.

Kimmel earlier addressed the “horrible and monstrous” killing of Kirk at Utah Valley University via an Instagram post on Sept. 10. “Instead of the angry finger-pointing, can we just for one day agree that it is horrible and monstrous to shoot another human?” he wrote at the time. “On behalf of my family, we send love to the Kirks and to all the children, parents and innocents who fall victim to senseless gun violence.”

Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on ABC.

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