Jimmy Kimmel is enlisting Rosie O’Donnell to guest host his ABC talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! as a “special treat” for President Donald Trump.
“I will be taking the next two months off — this time voluntarily,” Kimmel, 58, joked during his monologue on Thursday, June 18.
The comedian was referencing his September 2025 suspension by ABC for comments related to political fallout of the assassination of conservative Charlie Kirk. (Trump has repeatedly called for ABC to fire Kimmel, yet the network extended his contract for one year in the wake of the scandal.)
While Kimmel takes a break from late-night-TV, Jimmy Kimmel Live! will continue with celebrity guest hosts throughout the summer.
Rosie O’Donnell’s longstanding feud with President Donald Trump dates back nearly 20 years. While the two used to be friends — O’Donnell has even claimed to have attended Trump’s 1993 wedding to his ex-wife Marla Maples — a very public spat on The View in 2006 spiraled into a nasty war of words that carries […]
“We have assembled a potent group of hosts to fill in for me, beginning with Tiffany Haddish, Colman Domingo, Ike Barinholtz, Anthony Anderson, Jelly Roll,” he revealed to viewers.
Kimmel picked out one guest host especially for the president, revealing, “As a special treat for our commander-in-chief, I asked one of his all-time favorites, Rosie O’Donnell, to be here to keep the hits coming. So, you’re welcome!”
“All I ask in return, Mr. President, is that you don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone,” Kimmel quipped.
A spokesperson for O’Donnell, 64, subsequently confirmed to multiple media outlets that she will host a week of Jimmy Kimmel Live! episodes starting Monday, August 17.
O’Donnell shared Kimmel’s announcement via Instagram on Friday, June 19, adding in the caption, “And I can’t wait !!!”
Jimmy Kimmel; Rosie O’Donnell; Donald Trump Getty Images (3); Kevin Winter; Jamie McCarthy; Dimitrios Kambouris
Both Kimmel and O’Donnell have frequently sparred with Trump, 80, over the years. Following Trump’s second presidential election win, O’Donnell moved to Ireland and started the process of gaining Irish citizenship. (Trump has threatened to revoke O’Donnell’s American citizenship on multiple occasions, though it is not clear if he has the legal authority to follow through.)
O’Donnell recently returned to the U.S. to perform her solo stage show Common Knowledge at the Daryl Roth Theatre in New York City this summer. Earlier this month, she slammed Trump supporters as “racist, homophobic [and] un-American” for continuing to back him.
While the comic will definitely be back on TV with Jimmy Kimmel Live! in August, she told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen that there are no plans for her to return to her former stomping grounds at The View as a guest panelist.
Rosie O’Donnell revealed she secretly traveled to the United States after leaving the country amid Donald Trump’s second term as president. “I was recently home for two weeks and I did not really tell anyone,” O’Donnell, 63, said after calling into SiriusXM’s Cuomo Mornings on Friday, February 13. “I just went to see my family. […]
“I would be up to guest host, but they haven’t asked me. So we’ll see what happens,” she hinted on Thursday, June 18.
O’Donnell memorably hosted her own daytime talk series The Rosie O’Donnell Show — which won five Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Talk Show— from 1996 to 2002. She later hosted the short-lived primetime Rosie Show from 2011 to 2012.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs every on ABC weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET.
