Jimmy Kimmel honoured at 2026 Peabody Awards

Jimmy Kimmel acknowledged that "making jokes about the President shouldn't win you a prize" at the Peabody Awards on Sunday night.

The TV personality's late-night chat show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, was honoured with an award for "embracing the responsibility of comedy to reveal truths amid political volatility".

Taking to the stage with his sidekick, Guillermo Rodriguez, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles, Kimmel told the audience, "Making jokes about the President - in America - shouldn't win you a prize. We have the right, guaranteed by the Constitution, to criticise and satirise our leaders. That is a right I took for granted, for the first 57 years of my life, until last September, when the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) delivered an unpleasant surprise."

The 58-year-old's long-running show was briefly suspended in September after he made a joke about the assassination of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk.

"I experienced something even more surprising. I watched firsthand as millions of people, even some from across the aisle, objected. They spoke up, they marched, they cancelled their subscriptions to Star Wars, because they refused to allow our freedoms to be bulldozed like the East Wing of the White House," he continued, reports Variety.

"They sent a message that we do care. And that we will stand up. And that we will not stand by when comedy, and journalism, and dissent are censored, regulated and criminalised."

Kimmel thanked those who supported his show in September and U.S. President Donald Trump himself, reeling off a string of nicknames including "commander-in-thief" and "Abrascam Lincoln".

He was presented with the award by Ben Affleck, who made a quip about Kimmel's long-running fake feud with his pal Matt Damon.

"For years, he's used his show to challenge authority on a nightly basis - and by authority, I think we all know that that means, one in particular, a credit-hogging narcissist named Matt Damon!" he joked.

In entertainment, other Peabody winners included The Pitt, Adolescence, Andor, Heated Rivalry, The Rehearsal and Pluribus. In addition, Amy Poehler was honoured with the Peabody Career Achievement Award.