New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will sit in as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel’s special Brooklyn run next week, linking the progressive mayor with a host who routinely targets conservatives.
ABC announced that Mayor Zohran Mamdani will appear on a special Big Apple stretch of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” The network set the five-day run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House from Sept. 28 through Oct. 2.
Reporting detailed the booking as part of the show’s eighth-annual stint in Brooklyn, with Mamdani described as set for the guest seat next week in front of a live studio audience. The program airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu.
The appearance puts the city’s mayor on a late-night stage that has spent years needling Republicans. Kimmel has frequently jabbed at President Trump and other conservatives from that desk.
Mamdani previously canceled a scheduled town hall with ABC affiliate WABC after the parent company suspended Kimmel’s show. The Washington Examiner reported the move came in protest of that suspension.
ABC suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Sept. 17 after Kimmel’s comments on the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Those remarks claimed the “MAGA gang” refused to describe Kirk’s suspected killer as “anything other than one of them.” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr had weighed in beforehand.
Carr said, “I think you could certainly see a path forward for suspension over this.” Disney briefly pulled the show and ABC said it would be preempted indefinitely. Kimmel returned days later and insisted he never intended to make light of Kirk’s death.
Months later an “expectant widow” joke about first lady Melania Trump went viral after another assassination attempt tied to the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. The pattern of sharp political shots has defined the host’s recent run.
Mamdani joins a lineup heavy on familiar progressive and entertainment names for the Brooklyn shows. Sen. Bernie Sanders is booked, along with actors Mahershala Ali, Billy Crystal, and Pete Davidson.
Fellow talk-show hosts Seth Meyers and John Oliver are also scheduled. Radio figure Howard Stern and comedian Robby Hoffman round out parts of the guest slate. Paul McCartney appears as well.
Musical acts include Bruce Springsteen and Tom Morello, who will both guest and perform, plus De La Soul, Goose, and TV On The Radio. The five-day stretch packs the Howard Gilman Opera House with that mix of politics and show business.
Readers tracking the mayor’s high-profile stops have watched him move from one spotlight to another, including plans around a 9/11 anniversary ceremony after earlier choices drew notice.
The Brooklyn dates arrive after Kimmel marked the show’s 4000th episode earlier this month by taking aim at FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. That episode referenced the brief suspension and the ongoing 2025 clash with Carr.
Carr’s public comments preceded the September pull-down. The host’s return did not end the friction. Kimmel has kept the political edge that first triggered the network action.
Mamdani’s decision to appear now stands in contrast to his earlier cancellation of the WABC town hall. The mayor who pulled out over the suspension is ready to share the stage once the show is back and rolling in his own city.
His tenure has already produced sharp public reactions elsewhere, including the night he was booed off stage at an NYPD event on Staten Island after less than a minute.
While the late-night booking draws cameras, Mamdani’s City Hall agenda keeps generating its own headlines. An appeals court recently cleared the path for his pied-à-terre surcharge after a lower court had blocked it.
That tax fight is one more front in the running debate over how the mayor uses city power. National figures have taken notice of his style as well.
Celebrity pushback has arrived in plain language, including when Kyle Kuzma called out the mayor as “a mayor playing president” over a Netanyahu arrest video.
Even direct engagement at the top of national politics remains on the calendar. Trump is set to head to Gracie Mansion for a first meeting with Mamdani on the mayor’s home turf, another moment that will test how the new administration handles scrutiny.
The Kimmel appearance itself adds no new policy detail. It simply places the mayor beside a host whose recent controversies centered on Charlie Kirk’s killing, an FCC chairman, and a viral crack about the first lady.
Sanders on the same guest list only thickens the progressive bench for the week. The Brooklyn Academy of Music will host the live audiences while the rest of the country watches the 11:35 p.m. feed or the next-day Hulu stream.
Late-night television has become a reliable clubhouse for one side of the political map. When a big-city mayor who already canceled an interview over the host’s suspension now books the guest seat, voters can judge the company he keeps for themselves.