When Jimmy Kimmel Live! returned to the airwaves after his brief suspension, our team conducted an overnight, rapid dial-test survey that included MercuryIQ Qual-at-Scale interviewing to understand the impact of Kimmel’s monologue on Americans across the political spectrum (Democrat, Republican, Independent).

The study was launched the following day (Weds) and results were published live by PRNews on their recap of the event just 24 hours later.

Watch the Dial-Tested Video above and read some of the key insights produced by our Ask MercuryAI analytics tool. The dial-test video is shown in Scrolling Mode which shows the ratings movement as they happen. 

Want to see more? Reach out to us! (Note: The above is shown for educational and news purposes. For additional data around this event, please contact Mercury.)

We asked Ask MercuryAI: “Looking at the survey data for responses to pre-video questions 075, 090, 095, 100 and 105, and then the post-video questions 115, 120, 125, 130, was there a level of improvement by the Republican Audience? Use quantitative Data to validate the answer.”

• Overall, there was a clear improvement in how Republicans viewed Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue after exposure to the content. For instance, on “He hit the right tone,” the pre-video top-2-box rose from 24% (12% strongly agree/12% somewhat agree) to 41% (25% strongly agree/16% somewhat agree) post-video, while the bottom-2-box dropped from 66% to 46%. Similarly, for “He addressed the situation completely and appropriately,” the top-2-box shifted from 25% pre-video (11%/14%) to 44% post-video (20%/24%), and the bottom-2-box decreased from 68% to 46%.

• On “He spoke thoughtfully,” Republicans reported 27% top-2-box (10%/17%) initially, moving up to 50% (24%/26%) post-video, and the bottom-2-box declined from 60% to 39%. A similar trend was noted on “He addressed important issues,” where top-2-box improved from 32% pre-video (11%/21%) to 58% post-video (25%/33%), while bottom-2-box fell from 58% to 30%.

• Additionally, the question on overall reaction exhibited a sizable percentage (43%) falling into the top-2-box rating (20% very positive/23% somewhat positive), though there is no direct pre-video measure available in the data for that specific question. Nonetheless, the consistently higher agreement levels and reduced disagreement rates across all other measures strongly indicate a positive shift in sentiment among Republicans after viewing Jimmy Kimmel’s coverage.