They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Love him or hate him, that adage did bear true when ABC semi-funnyman Jimmy Kimmel was yanked off airwaves for lying about the Charlie Kirk assassin in mid-September.

Kimmel came back from his five-day suspension to an undeniably massive audience: 6.48 million viewers, according to Mediaite.

But if absence makes the heart grow fonder, does presence make the heart grow weary?

Love him or hate him, that appears to be true about Kimmel, as well.

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Despite that monstrous viewership for his return, few of them appeared to have stuck around, if one looks at the Nielsen ratings data analyzed by Mediaite.

After 6.48 million viewers for his return show on Sept. 23, Kimmel has struggled to maintain any sort of momentum.

In fact, Kimmel shed well over half of that audience within the span of 24 hours, as his Sept. 24 show brought in a much more humble 2.43 million viewers.

A day later, Kimmel lost a few more viewers, bringing his show’s viewership to 2.3 million.

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His next two shows brought 2.85 million and 2.45 million viewers, respectively.

Then, however, the bottom fell out as the calendar turned to October.

On Oct. 1, Kimmel’s viewership plummeted to 1.7 million viewers, a number that was much closer to Kimmel’s typical viewership.

Bryan Chai, Western Journal